A PAEDOPHILE who allowed fellow perverts worldwide to look at vile child porn images has been jailed for 32 months.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Jason Leonard, 32, was found to have a stash of hundreds of child abuse pictures on his computer when police raided his home, in Haslingden, in January last year.

The hearing was told Leonard had ‘distorted views’ about child sex abuse, and a judge said she made it plain that, but for case law she was obliged to follow, she would have found him to be a dangerous offender.

Leonard, of Pilling Street, admitted charges of distributing an indecent photograph of a child in January 2011, and allegations of making an indecent photograph of a child, between August 2011 and January last year.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely, was banned from working with children for life, and was given an indefinite sexual offences prevention order.

Under the order, he is not allowed to use any device capable of accessing the internet, unless it has the capacity to retain, and display, the history and he makes it available for inspection by police on request.

He is prohibited from deleting the history, from using any software that deletes it, and must not possess any device capable of storing digital images unless he makes it available for police inspection on request.

Michael Wallbank, prosecuting, said police had seized a number of items of computer equipment from his home, which were sent to the high-tech crime unit for examination.

A large number of indecent images were found.

He was interviewed, and said he had downloaded and viewed indecent images.

He further admitted using file sharing websites and, by doing so, he allowed users worldwide to access, and view, the pictures. The prosecutor said five images of level five – the most serious level – were discovered, 87 at level four, 50 at level three, 36 at level two and 73 at level one. Leonard had distributed images of level five, four, three and one.

Philip Holden, for Leonard, said he had been frank, to say the least, with the probation service.

Judge Beverley Lunt told the defendant his pre-sentence report “made quite disturbing reading”.