A PAEDOPHILE supermarket worker had a film of a baby girl being raped among a collection of vile child abuse material.

Ryan Preece, 46, was caught with more than 1,400 indecent movies and pictures of children when police raided his home in Blaenau Gwent last summer.

Jeffrey Jones, prosecuting, said: “When officers asked him if they would find indecent images at the address, he replied, ‘Dunno’ and added ‘I have seen them online’.”

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Cardiff Crown Court heard Preece said police came across the child abuse images on two iPhones and a computer.

There were 552 category A – the most extreme kind – films and photos, 412 category B and 457 category C images.

Some of the filth he downloaded had been stored for 10 years.

Preece had also shared one category A image online.

The defendant, of Hughes Avenue, Ebbw Vale, pleaded guilty to making and distributing indecent images of children.

He was a man of previous good character with no previous convictions recorded against him.

Adam Sharp, representing the defendant, said Preece was a supermarket employee who had worked for Tesco and Morrisons and had once held a management position.

His barrister asked for his client to be given the appropriate credit for his guilty pleas.

Mr Sharp added that the long delay in the case coming before the court was not the fault of the defendant and there was a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation”.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins told Preece: “It’s difficult for any right-thinking person to understand how a person and people like you can view such images for their own perverted sexual pleasure.

“These were images that had been on your computer stored and viewed for over 10 years.

“I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that you have a deeply rooted, unhealthy sexual interest in children.”

Preece was jailed for two years, suspended for two years.

He was made the subject of a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

The defendant must register as a sex offender for the next 10 years and he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order until 2027.

Preece will have to pay £420 prosecution costs and a surcharge.