A PAEDOPHILE was caught with thousands of indecent images including children being abused, a court  heard.

Jason George Street had a stash of 7,363 still and moving images of youngsters ranging from Category A the most serious to Category C.

Prosecution barrister, Keely Harvey told how an IP address linked to Street, 51, of Flamborough Close, Southampton, had been flagged by a police child abuse team.

When officers raided his home, they seized several electronic devices including a laptop and tower  computer.

Ms Harvey said that thousands of other images were found, however, “the police at that time took the view it was very, very time consuming and very expensive” to process and categorise them  all.

Examinations of his internet history revealed he had searched for terms including 'seven-year-old children'.

During a police interview, Street said he was not responsible for downloading all of the material, Ms Harvey added.

Furthermore, he said “the computer was his daughter’s and was in her room”.

However, he later admitted to his crimes and told officers that he “would access the images while his father slept and while his daughter and wife were at work”.

Appearing before Southampton Crown Court, he was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

He pleaded guilty to the offences which happened between 2015 and  2019.

The court heard how Street has previous convictions from 2012 for having indecent images of children.

Defending, Jim Osborne, said: “[Mr Street] tells me that at the time he committed these offences he was caring for his terminally ill father who has now sadly passed  away.”

He said that a probation officer described his client as having low self-esteem and finding it difficult to talk about his problems.

Judge Nicholas Rowland jailed him for 30 months.