A DELIVERY driver who became addicted to images of bestiality and child abuse has been sent on a sex offenders’ course.

David Neate was found with more than 1,500 images or movies of children and 2,579 showing adults having sex with animals when police raided his home in Newton Abbot.

He was traced because he downloaded the material from file sharing websites and told police he had become addicted to the images.

He said he went through phases when he was disgusted with himself and deleted them but then became curious about the extreme material and downloaded replacements.

Neate, aged 39, of Burnley Road, Newton Abbot, admitted three counts of making, by downloading, indecent images of children and two of possessing extreme or prohibited images.

He was jailed for 10 months, suspended for two years, and sent on a 26 session sex offenders’ course with 30 days of rehabilitation activities by Judge Timothy Rose at Exeter Crown Court.

His future contact with under age girls and use of the internet were both restricted by a ten-year sexual harm prevention order and he was put on the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

The judge told him: ‘The aggravating features are the sheer number of images and the length of time, eleven months, you carried on. You told the police you knew you should not be doing it but kept going back.’

Mr Nigel Hall, prosecuting said Neate was traced through his IP address and police seized a desktop, laptop, hard drive and phone on March 6 last year. 

There were 320 images in the worst category, showing serious abuse of children, and 1,107 in the two lower categories, along with 2,579 extreme images of bestiality and 45 prohibited imaged.

The child images showed girls from six to 16 and Neate told police he used the search term PTHC without realising it stood for pre-teen hard core.

He said he started looking at items on fire sharing sites out of curiosity while downloading music or videos and then became addicted. He described it as a ‘stupid mistake’ but denied a sexual interest in children.

Miss Hollie Gilbery, defending, said Neate was disgusted with his own behaviour and is keen to work with probation to change it and ensure it never happens again.

He has run his own delivery business which he wound down because he thought he was going to prison but which he plans to re-start. He also acts as carer for his mother.