A man who stored child sex images in a file labelled “Aladdin’s Cave” has been jailed for six months.

Michael Gadsby, 53, told a probation officer that as he hadn’t paid to view the photographs on the internet he didn’t believe he had done anything wrong.

Canterbury Crown Court heard he also referred to some of the victims in the photographs as “jailbait”.

Gadsby, of Canterbury Road, Herne Bay, had admitted six charges of possessing and downloading more than 460 images and pseudo images of children up to Level 4 during a three -year period.

Jim Harvey, prosecuting, said Gadsby had been arrested in January 2012 on “other matters” and police had taken away his computer to analyse its content.

He said Gadsby had stored some of the images under a file named “Aladdin’s Cave” and had saved access to some of the sites under “Favourites”.

Mr Harvey said: “He had accessed some of these sites in the days leading up to his arrest, but when he was interviewed he initially claimed his computer would not contain any untoward images.

“However, after the images had been found he was re-interviewed and stated he had bought the computer from new and had used it principally for accessing Facebook and eBay, although he said that he and his partner had accessed adult pornography together.”

“The way in which you refer to yourself as broadminded and children as jailbait shows a total lack of insight and no victim awareness whatsoever..." - Judge Heather Norton

Kerry Waite, defending, said: “He has come to court expecting to receive a prison sentence but that is not something he relishes. In fact, he is quite apprehensive about it because life in custody for someone convicted of this can be very uncomfortable.”

Mr Waite added that “life in the community” was already uncomfortable after neighbours discovered he had been charged with the offences.

He said: “He has found himself subjected to abuse and threatening behaviour near to his home and hostility in local shops. He now feels obliged to move out of the area.”

Mr Waite said Gadsby had admitted using his computer “for sexual gratification”, adding: “I say that in the broadest possible permissible and heterosexual sense”.

He added Gadsby held “a naive view” that “if you are not paying [to view] sites then no one is profiting from driving forward child exploitation”.

However, Judge Heather Norton told him: “You expressed various views to the probation officer in the pre-sentence report which make extremely worrying reading.

“The way in which you refer to yourself as broadminded and children as jailbait shows a total lack of insight and no victim awareness whatsoever. You think you have done no harm, but you have.

“You may think the law is an ass in sending people to prison for these offences, but people do go to prison because children are abused. They are harmed by people like you. In my view you pose a risk to children.”

Gadsby was also banned from ever working with children ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.