A man who had almost 300 indecent images of children as young as three on his computer has been jailed.

Malcolm Peter Barwick, 51, admitted ten charges of attempting to distribute indecent images of children and 20 of possession of indecent photographs of children.

Prosecutor Lesley Dickinson said Barwick was caught by a Metropolitan Police investigation called Operation Pilsey set up to investigate users of child pornography through a network called Kazaa - a free file sharing programme where people within it could access each other's computers to share material.

Police visited Barwick's address in Castlegate Drive, Eccleshill, Bradford, and seized his computer equipment.

His computer contained a folder with 31 child pornography files for sharing with other Kazaa users. Police found 295 indecent images, 117 of which were graded levels four or five, the most serious.

Ms Dickinson said youngsters in the images showed "obvious distress".

In mitigation, Justin Crossley said: "He (Barwick) has made it clear to me that he's been repulsed by these images and that he gained no gratification himself."

He had been forced out of his home, lost his job and has had his possessions vandalised and has been threatened with violence.

He said: "He was told by police that it would be within his interests to move away and not return to Bradford. That's something he's done and his house is up for sale. By flicking on a computer and looking at these ghastly images, he has effectively destroyed his own life."

Barwick was jailed for 21 months for attempting to distribute indecent images and 12 months for possession of indecent images, to run concurrently. Barwick has been placed on the sex offenders register.