SADISTIC footage featuring children as young as 18-months-old being abused were among images found on a phone seized by police from a mechanic’s home.

A total of 561 indecent images, some moving and others still, were identified in examination of the contents of the phone, belonging to Darren Moses, recovered when police visited his home, in Willington, on February 22.

Durham Crown Court heard there were also four scenes of bestiality, classed as extreme pornography.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe described moving footage featuring a masked woman abusing a distressed toddler.

Moses made full admissions, saying he was sent a link which he expected to contain adult pornography and accepted he should have deleted the images on realising they featured children.

The 34-year-old defendant, of Bainbridge Avenue, who has no previous convictions, admitted three counts of possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography.

John Turner, mitigating, told the court: “Before these offences were committed he was a highly respectable man, with a good work ethic.as an MOT tester at the garage business in which he is a partner.

“Following his arrest, he has had to confront his behaviour and has used a help-line provided for him while in police custody.

“He’s a man who would benefit from a detailed programme to address his behaviour as he’s anxious to rehabilitate himself.”

Judge Jonathan Carroll described some of the recovered images as, “truly shocking, including an act of extreme sadism.”

He jailed Moses for 14 months and made him subject of registration as a sex offender, for ten years, and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, “until further order”.