A FORMER accountant and teacher has been jailed after downloading more than 150,000 indecent images of children.

Joseph Wilson, of Stonegate House, Stone Street, Bradford, appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday to face the charges after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing in March. His vile collection included 78 category A images of a child, 103 category b images and 156,224 category c images.

Wilson, 41, who was already on the sex offender's register and served a prison sentence for similar crimes in 2009, was also charged with being in possession of 26 prohibited images of a child and possessing 72 "extreme" pornographic images, which included bestiality.

His offending came to light last May, when police executed a warrant to search a flat, with a number of computer items removed.

Wilson was released under investigation and then re-arrested in February this year and further items were seized. The court heard he had continued to download images - even after his first arrest in May.

Prosecutor Jayne Beckett said both moving and static images were found and that sample images showed an "element of distress".

She said there had been systematic saving and file sharing activity through torrent software and the term 'Lolita' had been used as a search term. In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rose said child pornography means "a child somewhere, somewhere in the world has been sexually abused".

He told Wilson that men like him don't seem to understand that and think that because someone else made it, they are not responsible.

"Many people go through hardships in their lives and they deal with those hardships in many different ways. But few, if any, deal with them by resorting to viewing pornographic images of children," he said.

"I'm prepared to accept you have endured difficulties.What I'm not prepared to accept and do not accept, that these difficulties, in any way, explain, justify or mitigate your significant offending."

Judge Rose branded a Wilson a paedophile and said that through file sharing he had "facilitated the further distribution of perhaps hundreds or thousands" of pornographic images.

He highlighted a number of aggravating features including Wilson's previous conviction, that he continued after his first arrest and the file sharing element.

Wilson was handed a three-year sentence and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and have to register as a sex offender.

A spokesperson from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity dedicated to  preventing child sex abuse, said: “If you are concerned about what you are looking at online, or the online behaviour of someone you know, you can call the confidential and anonymous ‘Stop It Now’ helpline on 0808 1000 900 for advice, support and help to stop. Or visit https://get-help.stopitnow.org.uk/ to find out more.”