A LONER who amassed a sickening catalogue of videos and pictures of child abuse is starting a three-year prison sentence.

Andrew Turner was identified during two separate police investigations as a person sharing the vile images with other online paedophiles.

Among the 33-year-old former binman’s collection was a 45-second film of a two-year-old girl being raped, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Turner, from Stockton, first came to the attention of the police in 2015, and was cautioned for possessing indecent images of children.

In April last year, he was arrested at his home after the National Crime Agency alerted Cleveland Police to his illegal internet use.

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield told the court that he had been using the name Mr Smith on a social media account, which did not seem true.

After his computer tablet and two mobile phones were seized to be examined, and he was questioned, Turner was released on bail.

Experts discovered he had been using the name ‘teeny lover’ on social media, and there were a total of 589 indecent images of children.

The examiners also found he had been using a different alias, Aaron Smart, on Flickr, and had been talking online and sharing photos.

A later investigation by North Wales police also highlighted an address in Stockton and another false name which was being used by Turner.

Officers went to the property – where Turner was house-sitting for his holidaying cousin – and seized more devices and arrested him.

A further 1,400-plus indecent images and movies were found on three different mobile phones he had bought since his arrest and bail.

Michele Turner, mitigating, told the judge, Recorder Eric Elliott, QC: “He was mortified he caused that sort of disruption to his family members.

“Never in his wildest dreams did he ever think he would bring them into his sordid world . . . he is a socially-isolated man with many issues.

“He held down a local authority job for a long time, and that was his only social engagement. The rest of his time was spent in his bedroom.”

Turner, of Claymond Court, admitted six charges of making indecent images, four of distribution and failing to comply with notification requirements.

Mr Recorder Elliott told him: “It hardly needs to be said that these are very serious matters. The effect upon the victims in these photographs is unimaginable.”