A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for 12 months for possessing more than 47,000 indecent images of children as young as five.

Jean-David Marshall had more than 2,000 category A images depicting distressed children aged under ten subjected to what Judge John Harrow described as “appalling” sexual abuse.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard the 31-year-old, who was “addicted” to gambling and legal highs when he committed the offences, had carried out searches on the internet for images of children as young as two.

“You had an addiction to gambling and to legal highs, but by far the worst of your obsessions and addictions was your gross perversion with regard to images of children often involved in appalling sexual situations,” said the judge.

“What you ought to realise is that as a customer you are fuelling a vile trade.”

The sentencing hearing yesterday began earlier that day under Judge Samuel Wiggs, but having heard the evidence he declined to sentence the case.

“For reasons I don’t propose to elaborate on in open court I find myself unable to continue this case,” he said.

Prosecuting, Sadie Rizzo said Marshall’s offences were discovered when police confiscated a memory stick and three hard drives from his then home in Christchurch in May 2012.

These were found to contain 2,181 images of category A, 2,818 of category B and 42,299 of category C.

Marshall, a French national who works for his family business importing food from France, later pleaded guilty to 13 counts of possessing indecent images.

In mitigation, Les Smith said Marshall, of Ladysmith Close, had been depressed at the time of the offences and had lost thousands of pounds while seeking thrills through then-legal highs, including mephedrone, and gambling in casinos.

“He tells me that he is now horrified by what he viewed, and he is still haunted by the faces of the children involved,” said Mr Smith.

He said the defendant, who has no previous convictions, had downloaded a large quantity of images due to his addictive personality.

Marshall’s sentence was reduced from 18 months due to his guilty plea.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for ten years and issued a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for an indefinite period.