AN IT specialist who downloaded among “the most disgusting, appalling” images of child abuse ever seen by a judge has been jailed for two years.

Richard Jubb, 26, of Grand Avenue in Southbourne, admitted possessing more than 21,400 images of children that he shared over social network Twitter with some 200 followers.

The images were branded “some of the most graphic ever recovered” by police officers from Dorset Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team, and Judge Peter Johnson also spoke of his horror at their content during the sentencing at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The defendant had been sharing images of abuse online for around 10 years before his arrest.

Prosecutor Carolyn Branford-Wood said Jubb was arrested at a shared home in Broughton Avenue, Bournemouth, on July 29 this year after the National Crime Agency traced his IP address.

She said Jubb immediately confessed to his crimes, telling police that the images were on a hard-drive and adding that he had “stopped” downloading the photographs because they were “sickening” him.

During his first police interview, the defendant provided officers with passwords to a number of email addresses, and he later told them that he had begun to share the images at the age of just 16.

Ms Branford-Wood also gave details of an online conversation between Jubb and a Twitter user known only as ‘Vlad’, in which the defendant said that he enjoyed seeing images of babies and toddlers suffering abuse from men.

Jubb admitted a total of 15 counts, which included distributing indecent images of children, possessing indecent images and possessing extreme pornography.

Mitigating, Kevin Hill said Jubb himself suffered abuse as a three-year-old child, and is believed to be on the autistic spectrum.

“He comes to court in considerable distress,” Mr Hill added.

“[Before this case] he certainly had aspirations for the future and the potential to do very well.”

After taking a short break to view some of the images on Jubb’s hard-drive with Ms Branford-Wood and Mr Hill, a clearly shaken Judge Johnson returned to the court and said: “In my chambers just now, we viewed the most disgusting, appalling scenes of child abuse, and while you say you were eventually sickened, that did not stop you for a considerable period of time from not only obtaining material but also distributing it to others.”

He added: “You have pleaded guilty to 15 counts representing the most appalling abuse of children and babies.”

Jubb will also sign a Sexual Offences Prevention Order following his release from prison.