A Hawkinge man has been jailed for hoarding a massive collection of thousands of child abuse pictures and movies.

A former UK Border Agency officer Andrew Pratt, 47, admitted becoming addicted to images and films showing child sex abuse has been jailed for 30 months.

A judge said that the password-protected material built up by Pratt would fill any right-minded person with "revulsion".

Prosecutor Simon Taylor said Pratt admitted that he derived sexual pleasure from the images but had not wanted to "damage" children.

The court heard Pratt, who had no previous convictions, had lost his job and his partner over the offences.

In mitigation, defence counsel Nick Jones described Pratt as a "broken man" and said he had admitted his offences to police and pleaded guilty at the earliest stage.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor said police raided his home in Hawkinge, Kent, on April 15 last year and seized computers and hardware.

Pratt pleaded guilty to 17 counts of possessing indecent images of children with the intention of sharing them during a plea and case management hearing on 2 December 2011.

Judge Adele Williams jailed Pratt for 30 months on each count, to be served concurrently. He will serve half that sentence and then be placed under a supervision order. He will also be subject to an indefinite sexual offences order and be required to sign the sex offenders' register, also for an indefinite period.

Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2012©