A 'WEAK' and 'immature' man downloaded thousands of indecent images of children.

Gareth Williams, of Friar Street, Droitwich, was told his offences were ‘ghastly’ and fuelled child abuse by the judge who jailed him at Worcester Crown Court.

The 46-year-old delivery driver downloaded 591 indecent images at category A, the most serious level. He downloaded the images between February 6, 2006 and April 12, 2015.

Police also found 807 images at category B and 665 at category C (downloaded between 1998 and 2015), 100 extreme images and four prohibited images of children.

Williams admitted the offences at magistrates court on June 29 after a warrant was executed at his home on May 12 last year.

He was arrested and devices were seized, including three laptops from a chest of drawers.

Dan White, prosecuting, said the children in the images ranged from the age of four to 16 years and included movies and stills.

Williams used 'peer to peer software' to access the material. The images contained sexual activity involving animals, Mr White told the court.

Mr White said aggravating features were the vulnerability of the children involved, the high volume of images, the length of time during which they had been in Williams's possession and the deliberate searching for this type of material.

Alexander West, defending, said: "I accept that the custody threshold is crossed."

He said Williams had no previous convictions and had made contact with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, spending two to three months going through the modules.

"He presents as someone committed to addressing his offending behaviour" said Mr West. He said the offending was connected to Williams's isolation, physically and socially, at the time.

Williams, a delivery driver, has strong family ties which Mr West said had continued despite the recent disclosures.

"Save for the family, there's little social interaction" said Mr West. Williams has suffered previous 'depressive episodes'.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright said: "You were plainly active, looking for exactly this material in order to satisfy yourself sexually."

He said it was 'odd' that Williams regarded viewing the material as a way of obviating the need for face-to-face emotional engagement.

"It's clear to anyone who sees these images or movie clips or hears them described that these are real images of real people being victimised in the most ghastly way.

"For a child to be the subject of rape which is filmed or photographed, it's not just the inevitable, enormous emotional and psychological impact but that the children grow up knowing that, for the rest of their lives, the images of these ghastly things being done to them will remain for people with an interest like yours, in perpetuity."

He added: "You and your interest and desire for these images and films feeds the demand that drives the supply. This, like any other business, is a question of supply and demand. That is what makes this offending so very serious.

"You are plainly an emotionally immature, isolated and emotionally weak individual. I don't say that in any way to insult you. It's a mitigating factor."

Judge Cartwright jailed Williams for six months and three weeks and ordered that the indecent images be destroyed.

He also ordered a sexual harm prevention order to be made, controlling his use and access to the internet, prohibiting him from having any unsupervised contact with children under 16 other than that which is inadvertent and not reasonably avoidable in the course of daily life.

Williams must notify police of any change of address and other personal circumstances for the next 10 years.