AN internet paedophile who downloaded “horrific” images of children being sexually abused has been jailed for 20 months.

Father-of-three Mervyn Davies, aged 40, had more than 1,000 indecent moving images and pictures of children on his computer.

He also had a previous conviction for indecently exposing himself to a young girl, Newport Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Peter Donnison said the defendant had 15 images which were classed at category A featuring the most serious examples of child sexual abuse.

There were also 66 listed as category B and 970 at category C, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke was told.

Around half of the abuse images related to children under the age of 18 months and included victims, almost entirely girls, up to 14-years-old.

Davies, of Garfield Terrace, Ebbw Vale, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children.

Mr Donnison said Gwent Police high tech crime officers carried out an early morning raid at the home the defendant shared with his girlfriend last month.

He said they discovered a further 2,500 other photos suspected as indecent, but they were not categorised as they had already reached the threshold on which to charge him.

Ieuan Rees mitigating for his client admitted: “By their very nature, category A images are horrific.”

He added: “But there was a relatively small number of them.”

Mr Rees also said: “There is no evidence of distribution.”

Urging the court to consider imposing a suspended prison sentence, he said that the divorced qualified carpenter had sought help and “his new partner is supportive of him”.

But Judge Lloyd-Clarke said that Davies’ offending was so serious that only a custodial term could be justified.

Jailing the defendant, who had denied being sexually attracted to children, she also imposed a 15-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered him to register as a sex offender for the same period.

Davies was given a suspended sentence in 2008 by Cardiff magistrates for the indecent exposure offence.