A pensioner has been jailed after police found thousands of illegal images on his computer including some showing people having sex with a horse and a dead animal.

Paedophile Michael Jones, 74, who has a serious heart condition and struggles to walk, admitted charges of downloading child sex abuse pictures and movies.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how Jones, of High Street, Ramsgate, told police he had been viewing the sick images for more than 10 years.

Prosecutor Frances Lawson said that some of the victims in the images were between four and five years old.

"Officers also found 25 extreme pornographic images including a woman having sex with a horse and others involving dead animals."

Trevor Wright, defending, said Jones had recently suffered two strokes and had hoped to become reconciled with his wife of 30 years who now lives in Spain.

"After she learned about the nature of his offences, any hope of reconciliation has now disappeared and he has been ostracised by other family members."

Judge Heather Norton, in jailing him for 12 months, said the courts regularly had to deal with similar cases but "rarely involving 2,000 images".

She said Jones had shown limited insight into his offences, telling a probation officer he didn't think he had done anything wrong because he hadn't touched the children.

"Everything single one of those children was touched and was abused and the effect on the 2000 victims is incalculable," she said.

"And the more people there are like you looking at those images, the more children there are that will be abused to feed those desires."

After sentencing, Detective Constable Mark Bennett said: "Every one of these images and videos is a real victim being exploited, and those who are create a market for this by downloading the content are adding to the misery of those who suffer so horribly for the material to be created.

"We will use every available resource to us to track down those and arrest those who are supporting this criminal industry."