A paedophile who stored thousands of extreme and indecent images of children online, and bragged about how he liked incest, has been jailed.

Bilaal Saghir, of Providence Street, Blackburn, set up online accounts seven years ago, saving more than 1,500 images of child pornography.

Amanda Johnson, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said in June 2020, police from the child abuse team were tipped-off to an account which had sent out images of child sexual abuse, and linked it to Saghir’s old address on Whalley Old Road.

Officers visited Saghir’s home with a warrant and asked him if he knew anything about the images, to which he replied, ‘possibly’.

His devices were seized and taken to be analysed, with police discovering 1,527 indecent images of children saved on cloud storage.

Saghir also had a number of extreme videos involving animals, and police found folders he had named ‘child porn’, ‘child porn young teens’ and ‘child porn video brutal’.

Additionally, police accessed a chat on Google Hangouts which showed Saghir talking about how he was ‘into incest’ and 'liked young children'.

Defending, Claire Thomas said that Saghir, 29, knew he was out of control but that he had been interested in porn since a young age.

Ms Thomas said: “His behaviour over the past number of years is appalling and he knows that.

“His arrest was perhaps the wakeup call he needed, and he has made significant changes to his life since then.”

She said that he has since stopped misusing drugs and alcohol and has got married and is trying to get his wife over to the country.

Ms Thomas said that his wife did not yet know about his offending and that he was waiting for his sentence to tell her.

Judge Guy Mathieson, sentencing, said due to the ‘amount, the level and the distressing nature’ of the images, he had no option but to send Saghir to jail for 18 months.

Judge Mathieson said: “You delighted in the misery of babies - their physical abuse for your sexual gratification.

“You built up a collection of the most distressing images you could find.

“Your interest in rape fantasies is horrific.

“You say your arrest came as a relief - it means you would never have stopped.

“This is something which is part of you.”

Saghir previously pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images, three counts of making indecent photographs and possession of an extreme pornographic image.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for seven years and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for six years.