A CONVICTED paedophile has been sent back to prison for possessing more than 4,000 indecent photographs of children after Gwent Police failed to recover his whole collection from his home two years ago.

David Ford, aged 61, made copies of the images he had hidden on memory cards in the spines of books after discovering Gwent Police had not found them while on bail awaiting sentence in 2012, a court heard.

Ford, of Ty Isaf Park Avenue, Pontymister, was locked up for 32 months on December 10, 2012, with an extended licence period of 36 months, for 16 counts of making indecent photographs of a child.

After being released on April 10 last year on licence, Ford accessed the photographs he had stored, breaching his licence conditions and committing a further offence.

Ford, who has 25 years worth of convictions relating to offences against children, admitted he had more than 4,000 images still in his possession at his home after failing a lie detector test, which had had taken as part of his licensing conditions.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Ford pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing the indecent photographs of a child and one count of possessing extreme pornographic material in January this year.

Today, he was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment for possession of indecent images of a child and two years, to run concurrently, for possessing the extreme pornography.

Judge DJ Hale said that his sentence is “likely to have no affect” as Ford has already been recalled to prison to serve the remainder of his time for his 2012 offences and his extended licence period.

Barrister John Warren, prosecuting, said after failing the lie detector test, “a search was conducted at his home address and a number of electronic storage devices were recovered.

“Initially he made no comment but then went on to explain what had occurred that when in the probation service office, how he’d failed the test and that he had some material he shouldn’t have that police failed to recover.

“He’d since viewed those images several times and transferred some of these images to a larger storage device.

“The items that police failed to recover consisted of memory cards in spines of books and in a CD case.”

The court heard of Ford’s prolific previous offences including in 1990 when he was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court for gross indecency with a child, 1997 at Oxford Crown Court where he was sentenced for indecently assaulting a male and making indecent images and most recently in 2012, where he was jailed for 16 counts of making indecent photograph of a child.

Defending, Andrew Taylor said in this case, there was no “contact” involved in his crimes as there had been previously.

Judge Hale said: “You’ve pleaded guilty to possessing a vast quantity of indecent and extreme pornographic images.

“They all were made before your last sentence in December 2012 but you made plans to have them available in obtaining the storage space and making the memory cards so that you could have your library when you were released.”

Ford will not be released before August 9, 2018. Gwent Police have declined to comment.