A PERVERT obsessed with child sex is starting a 30-month prison sentence for trying to groom two schoolgirls online.

Daniel Forrest also had almost 2,000 indecent images of children - including babies - on a lap-top and tablet when he was arrested.

The 27-year-old had tried to arrange a meeting with a girl, 13, for sex after chatting to her on a social networking site in 2012.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the youngster was also at the centre of a recent "major" child exploitation case in the region.

Analysis of his computers also showed that Forrest had also spoken to a 15-year-old online and suggested they meet up for a sexual encounter.

Among the pictures he had stored was one of a 12-month-old who was bound and gagged while being abused, said prosecutor Joanne Kidd.

A judge described Forrest's interest in children as "a vile obsession" and said a probation officer had assessed his risk as serious.

Rachel Dyson, mitigating, said he had never before been in trouble, and had not taken the opportunity to meet any of the girls he groomed.

Miss Dyson told the court that Forrest had been hard-working, and was glad when he was arrested because it halted his perverted behaviour.

"He wishes to address his offending and seek intervention, she added. "He doesn't want to go back into that situation he found himself in."

Forrest, of The Cliff, Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, admitted possessing indecent images and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Recorder Bernard Gateshill, QC, also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will restrict Forrest's computer use in the future.

After reading letters from his step-father and a mental health worker, the judge told him: "Others take the view there is good in you."

He added: "You were collecting, at one stage, quite deliberately, purposefully, indecent images of children being sexually abuse.

"Some of those images relate to very young children, indeed babies in fact, images of very young children being . . . seriously mistreated.

"Unless people like you wanted these images, this abuse would not occur, and you are responsible for the abuse of all of these children.

"This sort of behaviour cannot be tolerated . . . you were seriously heavily involved in the collection and retention of images of a vile kind."