A Gillingham sex offender was caught with 30,000 indecent images of children on his computers and mobile phone, a court has heard.

HGV driver John Baker, 43, was under a court order for previous offences prohibiting him from using the internet to feed his perversion.

But Maidstone Crown Court heard that when officers went to his home in Harbledon Manor, Goudhurst Road, they discovered he had collected more.

Baker had served an eight month jail sentence for similar offences 10-years ago and was then made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

James Warren, defending, told the court that even after he was arrested in November 2017 when his computer was taken away for forensic examination, he carried on using his phone to look for images.

He said if Baker was jailed he would lose his home and his job and asked for any jail sentence to be suspended.

Baker, who admitted 20 offences of downloading and breaching the previous order, told probation he accessed the vile images and wanted to be arrested because he couldn't cope after the death of his mother.

Mrs Justice Cutts told him the offences were too serious and jailed him for a total of 22 months.

She said that accessing child sex images was not a victimless crime.

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