A GRANDDAD who took indecent photos of a naked girl of six has been jailed.

Paul Avery was jailed for three years at Worcester Crown Court after he took the explicit photos and videos of the girl.

The 62-year-old of Sanctuary Close, Worcester, denied causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, a charge that will lie on file.

However, he admitted taking indecent images of children between December 28, 2014 and August 25, 2017, which found on his device.

Michael Aspinall, prosecuting, said the defendant had answered ‘no comment’ to questions put to him by police in interview.

In a victim statement, the mother of the girl said her life and that of her family had been ‘turned upside down’ by the defendant’s actions which she called ‘a selfish act’.

Her daughter no longer wanted contact with men, she said. The mother had to take a year off work due to depression and because she did not want to leave her daughter alone.

Guy Wyatt, defending, said he would make a ‘bold submission’ that the sentence could be suspended.

“This is an unsophisticated man. He’s 62 years old. He’s not a man of good character but so close to it I invite your Honour to say he can properly be treated as one” said Mr Wyatt.

He also said the defendant had been identified as ‘low risk’ by the probation service the pre-sentence report.

Avery has a conviction for an unrelated offence (benefit fraud) dating back to 1998.

Judge Robert Juckes QC said there had been an ‘unusually large number of court appearances’ before the defendant admitted what he had done but agreed that his previous conviction was not relevant to this sentencing exercise.

Judge Juckes told Avery it was a ‘dreadful thing’ to see a man of his age charged with such an offence.

“It seems to me I have no choice but to pass an immediate custodial sentence. I have to take account of the dramatic effect that this has had,” said the judge.

He jailed Avery for three years, made a sexual harm prevention order which includes preventing Avery using internet enabled devices without oversight of the police. A restraining order was also made.

Both orders were made until further order.

Avery was already registered as a sex offender after making previous admissions.

The judge said he had to sentence him for taking 19 category B images of that girl ‘aged five or six’ and 249 further images including four videos at category C, ‘all images of her naked’. He described the sexual images as ‘posing’.

Judge Juckes said the defendant has also searched the internet for other images of children in sexual poses.