Father jailed over stash of 7,000 child porn images

Almost 500 of the shocking images on Anthony Davis' computer equipment were at the highest levels of seriousness and showed girls as young as five being "grotesquely" abused.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Davis, 43, of Spruce Drive Mews, Netherton, Huddersfield, may have been downloading indecent images for almost a decade.

Police were alerted to his activities in June 2008, when they were called to a domestic incident at the Halifax home of Davis' then partner.

Prosecutor Dave Mackay said officers seized a laptop and computer equipment from the property and when it was analysed they found a total of 7,723 indecent images of youngsters.

Davis, who had previous convictions for offences of violence, pleaded guilty last month to 21 offences relating to possession of the indecent images, but his lawyer Richard Brown stressed that his client had not been involved in taking the images or distributing them to others.

Mr Brown conceded that the age of the children was an aggravating feature of the case, but he said since the matters came to light 18 months ago Davis had not accessed any similar material.

"He has demonstrated he is capable of controlling these unhealthy urges," submitted Mr Brown.

But Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: "Some to these images are deeply distressing and troubling.

"The level four and particularly the level five images are distressing."

He added: "The probation report sets out, of course, the horrific danger and damage caused by this trade, this market you were accessing."