A 60-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to possession, making and taking indecent images of children.

Robert Walter Clark, from Beulah Road, Tunbridge Wells, appeared at Maidstone Crown Court and pleaded guilty to 10 offences of possession of indecent images of children, five offences of making indecent images of children and six offences of taking indecent images of children.

Clark was arrested in March of this year following information provided by the Child Explotation Online Protection centre (CEOP). He later pleaded guilty to the 21 offences.

He was found with 13,876 images ranging from levels 1-5 (on a scale of level 1-5, level 5 being the most serious depicting sadism or bestiality with children).

Clark had previously admitted to covertly taking indecent images of young girls using his mobile telephone.

Kent Police's Detective Constable Kay Sankey said: "Clark took images of young girls without their knowledge for his own sexual gratification.

"He also went on to build his own personal large collection of indecent images. There is no excuse for searching, viewing or downloading indecent images of children."

The total number of images found were: Level 1 - 10,111, Level 2 - 723, Level 3 - 1,684, Level 4 - 1,291, Level 5 - 67.