A PAEDOPHILE amassed a collection of almost 10,000 images of child abuse and bestiality because "normal pornography" was not exciting enough for him.

Jeffrey Bointon tried to convince police he had no interest in children when he was arrested, but confessed to having taken part in "diverse sexual behaviour".

Along with the items found on the IT expert's lap-top computer, police found worrying internet chatroom exchanges with another pervert about abusing a child.

Teesside Crown Court heard that one of the people he communicated with was a 68-year-old paedophile from Kent, who was posing online as a mother-of-two.

Bointon, of Glendale Road, Middlesbrough, was jailed for two years and seven months after he pleaded guilty to a string of child sex charges.

But the court heard that in an interview with a probation officer, he tried to hide the reason for downloading the indecent images and appeared to show no remorse.

Judge Gillian Matthews, QC, told the depraved 41-year-old: "I am extremely concerned about your gradually increasingly severe and intense behaviour."

Bointon's barrister, Aisha Wadoodi, said he had become desensitised to "normal pornography" and turned to children and animals to "titilate" him more.

The court heard how a police examination of his computer revealed more than 9,800 indecent photos and films - hundreds in the two most serious categories.

Miss Wadoodi said although Bointon talked of travelling to Holland and elsewhere to carry out his plans, there was no evidence to prove that he ever did.

"The defence submit that no child was ever actually at risk," the barrister told Judge Matthews. "There is nothing to suggest he has ever tried to harm a child."

Bointon was also banned indefinitely from working with children, put on the sex offenders's register for life and barred from using devices with internet access.

The judge described his interest in child abuse as "an addiction" and told him: "It was, at minimum, fantasy, and at maximum, foreshadowing what you hoped to do in the future."

Bointon admitted four charges of arranging, facilitating or attempting to incite child sexual activity, possessing and making indecent images and possessing extreme pornography.