DISTRESSING sexual images of babies, children and animals were all found at a builder’s home by police while he was on holiday with his wife.

Stephen Walter, of Castle Lane Cottage, Thatcham, was in Greece when officers raided his home and found thousands of indecent, illegal and extreme pornographic images and movies.

The 59-year-old denied gaining any sexual gratification from watching the movies and said he only downloaded them out of curiosity.

Charles Ward-Jackson, prosecuting at Reading Crown Court on Friday, August 18, said: “There is a large quantity of images and some of the children are of a very young age.

“Some of them are babies and toddlers and some are moving images of very young children."

Police searched his home in September 2016 and found a USB and two computer towers, containing more than 400 of the most serious kinds of images and more than 2,000 in total.

Steven Maloy, mitigating, explained: “Mr Walter is deeply ashamed of what he has done.

“He foolishly believed this was a victimless crime but now he realises it is not.

“He admits to masturbating to these images and movies and is seeking help for his addiction.”

It was 18 months before Walter was caught and the court heard how more than 80,000 images are yet to be examined and categorised by Thames Valley Police.

Judge Ian Grainger concluded: “This particular collection of images is one of the more disgusting I have seen.

“The age of the children is particularly distressing. Some of them are babies, infants and toddlers.”

Walter admitted to seven counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possessing extreme pornographic images, two counts of possessing a prohibited image of a child and one count of making indecent moving images of children.

He was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months and was handed 150 hours of unpaid work, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, committed to the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years and given a rehabilitation requirement of 30 days.