A PERSISTENT paedophile has been jailed for three years for hoarding thousands upon thousands of vile indecent images of little boys being raped and sexually abused and sharing some of them with like-minded perverts.

James Pearson went on to “delve deeper into the darkness” to access the “deplorable filth” after being arrested in possession of more than 15,000 still and moving images at categories A, B and C, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Judge Jonathan Rose told him that it was “dreadful, persistent and prolonged offending,” and it was almost impossible to imagine the suffering the abused children went through.

Prosecutor Marte Alnaes said Pearson, 32, of Recreation Crescent, Holbeck, Leeds, was first arrested after the police searched his home in March, 2017.

He refused to co-operate with the investigation and because of the level of encryption it took a long while to break into his computer equipment to access the images.

While under police investigation, Pearson again began hoarding indecent images and was caught in December, 2019, with his new collection.

Miss Alnaes said he had distributed images from the first stash with like-minded paedophiles. More than 80, including 22 at category A had been shared.

Sean Smith, Pearson’s barrister, conceded that the very young age of some of the children and the sheer volume of images were aggravating factors in the case.

Smith had experienced difficulties in his upbringing and found relationships difficult. His mother and grandmother were reliant on him and they would be impacted were he to go straight to prison.

His probation officer said he was at a low risk of reoffending and capable of rehabilitation.

But Judge Rose said Pearson had contributed to the suffering of 15,000 children who were abused because of men like him who provided a market for “this deplorable filth.”

Some of the images showed small boys being raped and sexually abused by adult males while they were bound.

Pearson, an educated man with responsibilities, had also distributed the “utterly, utterly vile material.”

While under police investigation he had gone on to collect more of it.

He pleaded guilty to making and distributing indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.

He was jailed for two years for the 2017 offences and 12 months to run consecutively for the later offences, totalling three years.

He must sign on the sex offender register for life and Judge Rose made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order without limit of time.