A former RAF intelligence officer has been jailed for 16 months for sending sick messages over Skype about child rape.

Married father of two Andrew Hammond called himself “Dirty Daddy" as he shared his depraved fantasies over the Internet.

Hammond, 49, of Crabble Hill, Dover had pleaded guilty to NINE offences relating to more than 1000 indecent images of children and babies being sexually assaulted.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how Hammond had served in the RAF – and was involved in directing bombing operations in Afghanistan.

His barrister claimed his experiences – watching beheadings, torture and assassinations – had left him “desensitised from things remote”.

After leaving the forces, Hammond, who served with the RAF for 26 years, had secretly carried on conversations in chatrooms where he talked about raping babies.

Prosecutor Andrew Forsyth said in June last year Kent detectives were alerted by their American counterparts about his activities with other paedophiles in the Canada-based chatrooms.

Hammond – who was convicted of doing the same thing in 2012 – was now using the names “Sick Daddy” and “Dirty Daddy”.

He was arrested and officers discovered more than 1000 vile child images on his telephone which he used to access the sites from his car... a quarter of them at the worst level.

He told police the chats about raping a child had gone on “for hours at a time”.

Mr Forsyth added: “He denied having any sexual interest in children and it was more to do with the “taboo subject”... involving raping babies.

The court heard that at one time Hammond’s wife became suspicious of his behaviour and hid his laptop computers.

But he later found them and carried on his chats which were driven by “lustful thoughts”.

Hammond's RAF job had been to analyse drone images during the Afghanistan War and target bombings.

David Owusu-Yianoma, defending, said: “He was a specialist in image analysis, both satellite and drone intelligence gathering.

“That involved him watching some very gruesome footage, brutal beatings, torture, people being made to lie on the ground and then shot in the head and others being beheaded.”

His barrister added: “In order to do his job it involved a certain detachment and remoteness from the targets involved. It was a dark period in his life which has traumatised him.”

Hammond, who also work for P&O Ferries, pleaded guilty to NINE charges of possessing and distributing sex images of children and posting articles in the chatrooms.

Judge Rupert Lowe told him that while he accepted his war experiences had affected his judgement it couldn’t excuse his “obsession with having sex with children.”

He said some of the images were of the “utmost gravity” showing the raping of real children and babies.

“It is the market for such images created by people like you which increases the frequency and severity and barbarity of the real sexual abuse of children.”

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Through his disturbing behaviour it is clear that Hammond poses a very serious threat to children and it is right that he is now facing a custodial sentence.

“By creating, viewing and distributing these child abuse images, Hammond has helped fuel a sickening online industry. These are images of crime scenes and children have been abused for these to be created.

“We hope that Hammond receives rehabilitation and treatment to minimise any risk he poses upon his release.”