JAIL FOR MAN WHO DOWNLOADED 93,000 CHILD PORN IMAGES

Ian Andrew Baldock, 36, of Cliftonville Road, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in February 2001 for his involvement in the world's largest internet child porn ring, The Wonderland Club.

He was released early in May 2002, but within a year he had returned to the world of internet child porn and was arrested in August.

At Hove Crown Court on Monday he pleaded guilty to 36 counts of making, 13 counts of distributing and one count of possessing 93,614 indecent images of children between April 2003 and August 2004.

He was jailed for four years.

The court heard the actual figure of images collected from his St Leonards home and work was estimated at nearer 130,000 - though many of these were duplicates and legal adult pornography.

The images were classified for varying degrees of indecency using the Copine scale, with one being the least indecent, a child playing on a swing, and five being the worst.

Baldock's collection included 20 per cent classified as levels four and five.

Judge Charles Kemp said: "You and I don't know what harm you have done to these children. You perpetuate this evil and disgusting trade. The probation officer is of the view your offending was organised, premeditated and systematic over a long period. I agree. I have seen a sample of the images, a substantial amount are clearly classified as category five. These involve very, very young children and those of young children engaged in sexual acts with adult males are the most serious. Not only have you enjoyed some of these images for your own sexual gratification you have distributed them to others. You remain a risk to the public at large and young children."

Baldock was sentenced to three and a half years for each count of distribution and making and four years for possession, to run concurrently.

Judge Kemp also ordered Baldock to complete his previous sentence, adding another three months and 20 days to run consecutively.

Upon his release Baldock must sign the sex offenders' register for life, is banned from accessing the internet or texting, police officers are able to seize any digital equipment or computers without a warrant for investigation and he will be on licence for a further four years.

Baldock first came to light in 1998 when a National Crime Squad investigation, Operation Cathedral, identified him as a key player in the internet paedophile network, known as The Wonderland Club.

He served half of a 30-month sentence and was released in May 2002 and placed on the sex offenders' register.

However, in June 2003, as part of Operation Octave, a man was arrested in North Yorkshire for the attempted rape of a nine-month old baby girl.

On June 18 2004 David Ward was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment at York Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to the attempted rape, taking indecent photographs of the rape and distribution of over 33,000 indecent images of children.

When the National Hi-tech Crime Unit analysed Ward's computer they discovered he had a list of rules users had to observe, one of which stated they could only upload images of girls aged up to five years engaged in sexual activity - 'extra credit' was given for images of children under two years. One user, listed as 'Danny 13', appeared several times as trading with Ward and had clearly agreed to the rules - the server was traced back to Baldock.

When his home and work computers were seized on August 2 initial forensic examinations revealed 50,000 indecent images of children in varying sexual positions.

Further investigations led police officers to estimate the number of child abuse photographs to be approximately 98,000 and 30,000 from the two computers.

According to the prosecution, Robert Flach, some of those images were categorised as level five as they were "sadistic". He added clearly the figures involved were well in excess of the 93,000 admitted.

Mr Flach said: "During interview he fully admitted uploading and downloading child pornography in the form of videos and images for his own use since his release from prison. He said he was disgusted by his behaviour and constantly had to fight his demons."

Julian Dale, defending Baldock, said: "Whilst these are very serious offences Baldock's involvement is not at the highest end of the scale and the majority of the images do not fall at the highest end of the scale in their content."

But Judge Kemp said: "He downloads them and uses them and this perpetuates this disgusting trade."