A MARRIED dad who swapped indecent pictures of children and spoke about taking a one-year-old into public toilets so she could be abused has been jailed for 18 months.

Former mental health nurse John Worrall was told by a judge that his internet chat room conversations were "depraved" and his defence case was "ludicrous" and seen through by a jury.

Worrall initially claimed to be a paedophile-hunter and was trying to trap a man who posted indecent images on a sports chat room, by asking for more so he could go to the police with them.

Another version the 39-year-old gave was that his messages about child rape was simply "escapism" – telling the Teesside Crown Court jury: "It was to switch off from work."

He still denies being responsible for the near-900 illegal photographs and films found on his computer when police arrested him at the family home in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

The images had been transferred from a memory stick which he destroyed a week before he was questioned, claiming it had been corrupted by a virus and become unusable.

Worrall, whose address since being charged has been Bernice Avenue, Oldham, was found guilty of three charges of making indecent images of children and one of distributing them.

Judge Sean Morris him: "The jury had to endure listening to the most depraved chat you engaged in with somebody in a chat room, and, quite frankly, your defence was ludicrous and understandably they convicted."

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said since he was found guilty and remanded in custody,

Worrall has become "a shell of a man" and was badly beaten up within hours of arriving in prison.

"I cannot overstate what a profound effect custody has had on him in the last three weeks," he said. "It has been, and will be, the most significant aspect of his sentence by a country mile because of the experience he endured.

"On day one, he was in a cell not protected by the vulnerable prisoner wing because there was no room for him, a prison guard opened his door and another inmate walked in and violently assaulted him.

"He is a nervous wreck. Downstairs, he has been crying and shaking. He is now on the vulnerable prisoner wing, and hopefully there will be no repeat of it. He is struggling. He is a shell of a man."