A former soldier shot by the Taliban while on tour in Afghanistan has been unmasked as a depraved paedophile who hoarded “sickening” images of child torture and bestiality.

Godfred Sarpong, formerly of Folkestone, was discovered with a stash of “grotesque” photos, including a person performing a sex act with a frog and films of others having intercourse with a live snake and a dog.

The 33-year-old was jailed for almost three years at Canterbury Crown Court last Friday.

Peter Alcock, prosecuting, explained officers discovered the obscene cache while analysing Sarpong’s iPhone for a separate matter.

The father-of-one had shared a number of the images with up to 36 recipients via Whatsapp.

Of those showing children being sexually exploited in horrific ways, one included a newborn being “horrendously abused,” the court heard.

The former Army soldier also possessed deleted images of dead bodies and mutilation when his mobile was seized in Folkestone in September 2018.

"Nobody with any sense of reason or decency would want to do anything with those images other than throw them away..."

Recorder Bernard Richmond KC labelled the images “sickening” and “grotesque”.

“Nobody with any sense of reason or decency would want to do anything with those images other than throw them away or refer them to the police,” he said.

“Unfortunately, what you did was not just keep them, but distribute them.”

The court heard Sarpong suffers from PTSD after being shot by the Taliban and then stabbed by a fellow soldier while on tour.

His barrister, Chris Waymont, said Sarpong “holds his hands up” to his illegal activity, adding: “He wanted, Your Honour, you to be aware he knew about the impact his actions had, not just on the children involved, but also on wider society.”

He added Sarpong was helping to fund healthcare for his ailing mother with his £650 a week courier job based in Dagenham.

Mr Waymont said Sarpong has since been volunteering for British Red Cross and Help for Heroes.

Sarpong, now of Gascoyne Road, Hackney, admitted three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images of animals between 2016 and 2018.

He also admitted six further offences relating to images involving children.

Dressed in a white shirt, Sarpong leaned forward, pressed his head against the perspex and wept, after the judge passed the sentence of 35 months.

He will be made subject to a lifetime of notification requirements and an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.