The 20-year-old was among 80 people across the British Isles arrested in June under Operation Tharsley – a crackdown on paedophiles involving 40 police forces and the national Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
He later admitted that he started downloading the images when he was aged just 14 and had since amassed a collection of 2,695 pictures and 537 films of children as young as five being abused by adults.
He was yesterday jailed for two years by the Royal Court and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years.
