A BOURNEMOUTH paedophile caught with thousands of indecent images of children and babies has been handed the maximum five years in prison.

Colin Janaway, aged 56, was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely after admitting a string of child porn distribution charges at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Dorset Police arrested Janaway in May following an extensive undercover operation. After searching his home, officers discovered thousands of indecent images of very young children and babies on his electronic devices.

They were also able to recover images he'd attempted to hide on the 'Dark Web', part of the internet unavailable to standard online search engines.

After examining his computers, experts found 1,105 category A, 1,663 category B and 3,826 category C indecent moving and still images. Category A child pornography images are the most serious there are.

Investigating officers, who worked through the images discovered during the raid, are still to classify 4,630 of the pictures.

David Baker, of Dorset Police's Paedophile Online Team, said: "Janaway presented a significant risk and danger to the public. It is therefore right that he was handed the maximum sentence.

"This jail term is a warning to anyone involved in downloading indecent images of children that you will be found and brought to justice."

Janaway, appearing at crown court on Thursday, pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing indecent images of children, and to breaching an existing Sex Offenders Prevention Order.