A JUDGE has dismissed a pervert’s claim he had no sexual interest in children despite being caught with more than 5,000 indecent images stored on his phone and laptop.

Judge Jonathan Carroll told Connor Coxon his collection of vile images was ‘amongst some of the worst, particularly bearing in mind the ages of the children, measured in months, not even years’.

The 29-year-old was arrested at his home by Cleveland Police following a tip-off.

A search of his digital devices uncovered 842 Category A images – the highest level – with 79 being videos; 2,650 Category B images with 13 videos; and 1,719, Category C images with two videos.

The judge described Coxon's collection as 'repugnant' and dismissed his excuse for his offending.

He said: “You claim you were doing it just for excitement and kicks – I simply just don’t understand that.

"When you seek out this kind of material, overtly and sexual orientated material with very young children, if you are not doing it for sexual kicks, I simply cannot conceive what type of excitement or pleasure you were trying to achieve.

“Frankly, that only makes the position even worse.”

Coxon, of Ainsworth Way, Ormesby, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of indecent images of children.

The judge said some of the images depicted the very young children as drunk or drugged while they were being abused.

He added: "Every single abused child in these videos was a real child, really being abused and actually suffering. Suffering for something as trivial as giving you some measure of excitement – sexual or otherwise.

"The sheer number of them and the nature of what you were seeking out, is in my judgement, so serious that the public interest balance tips very much in favour of immediate punishment and that means custody."

Jonathan Gittins, prosecuting, said police recovered all of the images from Coxon's laptop, mobile phone and a computer memory stick when his home was raided on July 29, 2019.

A forensic examination of his digital equipment recovered a total of 5,305 images.

Mr Gittins said during police interview Coxon admitted 'actively' searching for child sexual abuse images once or twice a week and some of the images showed children under the influence of drink or drugs.

Nicci Horton, in mitigation, said there was no evidence found of any distribution of child abuse images or any images hidden behind encrypted networks meaning all of his images had been found on his digital devices.

She added her client has struggled with alcoholism and has been seeking help to try and deal with that ongoing problem.

Coxon was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders' register for ten years and was made the subject of a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.