A pervert who once claimed he viewed indecent images of children in an attempt to trap others has been jailed after he committed similar offences.

Gary Ashby was in March 2013 given 12 months imprisonment suspended for a year by magistrates for three offences of possessing over 1,100 indecent images of children.

The 35-year-old unemployed chef said afterwards: “There was no intention of gratification. I found these people on the site and wanted to stop them doing what they were doing.”

But Ashby, formerly of Yarrow Road, Chatham, found himself in the dock at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday after admitting two offences of possessing indecent photos and two of making them.

Police launched an investigation after Ashby was found to be associated with a Twitter account, on which he had downloaded photos.

Officers went to a caravan at The Barn, Ford Place, Ford Road, Wrotham Heath, which was Ashby’s registered address as a sex offender, on November 26 2015.

He said: “I have been on Twitter uploading pictures but not indecent images of children.”

Prosecutor Mary Jacobson said officers seized an iPad, laptop computer and smart phone and indecent images were found on all three.

There were a total of 96 images - one in the highest category, two in the next most serious category and 93 in the lowest category.

In the previous case he posed as a 13-year-old girl to set up a fake account using an email address called Jessica Rabbit13.

Police raided his mother’s home in Chatham and found the hundreds of images.

Jailing him for six months, Judge Charles Macdonald QC said he had read a number of impressive references for Ashby, but the outstanding aggravating feature was that it was the second time he had committed such offences.

“Offending of this sort calls for a deterrent sentence,” he said. “In your particular case there are features of lack of insight, meaning you present a continuing risk to children.”

The judge added: “There is no doubt this must be immediate custody.”

Ashby’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register and a sexual harm prevention order was made, both for seven years.

He will be barred from working with children under 16 and vulnerable adults.