A DEPRAVED pervert has been jailed for four years after superimposing images of himself having sex with a child and amassing more than 178,000 indecent images of children.

Robin Moffat’s sexual fantasy had a devastating impact on the life of the young victim after Cleveland Police identified her from some of the images stored on his computer.

Teesside Crown Court head how the 61-year-old had started saving indecent images in the late 90s and his offending only came to light when he was caught offering to share his ‘gross’ collection online.

Following a tip-off officers from Cleveland Police POLIT (Paedophile Online Investigation Team) attended his home address on November 15 and seized a number of devices for examination where they uncovered the huge scale of his perverted collection of images.

The court heard that Moffat had used images of his victim from the age of three as he acted out his fantasy, even going as far as adding speech bubbles to the images.

The loner, of Palmerston Street, Stockton, pleaded guilty charges of possession of 6,077 category A images, 5,075 category B images and 16,864 category c images. He was also charged with possessing 89 prohibited images of the children – the one he had added images of himself and his victim to – and the possession of 1,112 extreme animal pornography images.

Jenny Haig, prosecuting, told the court that one of the videos showed a young victim being abused for almost two hours.

Moffat’s sexual obsession with the young girl, who is now an adult, resulted in him making almost 100 images which has left the victim suffering from night terrors and irreparably damaged her life.

In mitigation, Michele Turner said her client lived a lonely and isolated life in his Stockton home and when he closes his door he ‘enters his own fantasy world’.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said the victim of his falsified images had been severely affected by his actions and jailed him for two years for that offence alone. He also gave him a two-year consecutive sentence for possession of the category A images and three 12-month concurrent sentences for the remaining charges.

He said: “The nature of the images discloses very extreme sexual activity. There is evidence of the children being distressed by the acts performed on them by adults – they are gross.

“She (the victim) will have that nagging worry that once they were created, they could be out there for somebody else to access.

“You did lead an isolated life but you chose to seek solace by seeking out and keeping this vast quantity of images of young children.”

Speaking after the hearing, Investigating Officer Detective Constable Pete Howes said: “Moffat is, by his own admission, somewhat of a fantasist. He lives alone, is unemployed and has spent his time obsessively building his “collection” of images -albeit in a rather amateur way - using graphics editing tools to superimpose both his own and the child’s head onto indecent pictures and videos.

“He continued making these images and videos for many years until the child became an adult. The young woman concerned was understandably horrified and sickened to learn these images existed - and naturally it has affected her very badly.

“As well as ensuring a thorough investigation to provide the best possible outcome for this child, who was by now a young woman, I had to ensure she and her family received the appropriate specialist safeguarding and support throughout the entire process.”