A SEX offender from King's Somborne caught with “repulsive” images of “extremely young” children has been jailed.

Timothy Waterman had more than 1,000 indecent images, mostly young boys, some said to be in the age range of just two to four years old.

Appearing at Southampton Crown Court, the 36-year-old, once given a suspended sentence for inappropriately touching a young boy he was babysitting, was jailed for more than a year.

The court heard Waterman was caught with the images after police visited his address in King's Somborne in September last year.

Prosecutor Roderick Blain said police made the visit after receiving information that an address linked to Waterman had been used to download indecent images.

During the visit police seized a USB stick, a tablet and a laptop from Waterman.

Across the three devices they found a total of 1,300 indecent images, including 462 category A images – the most serious kind.

Mr Blain said around half of the category A images were moving images, which he described as an aggravating feature of Waterman’s offending.

He added that the pictures were mostly of young boys, some of which were categorised as being in the two to four age range.

Mr Blain said that Waterman had also breached a previous sexual harm prevention order by not disclosing the tablet to police during an earlier visit in May.

He said that the order was made in 2015 when Waterman was convicted of sexually assaulting a young boy whom he was babysitting.

In mitigation, Chris Gaiger said Waterman was seeking help for his “addiction” through the Lucy Faithful Foundation – which aims to prevent the sexual abuse of children.

Mr Gaiger added that Waterman was “petrified” of the prospect of going to prison.

In sentencing, judge Peter Henry said Waterman was “not the victim”.

He said: “I read in the your pre-sentence report that you have your own problems, but I am afraid you are not the victim here, it is the children.

“If one has the misfortune of reading the schedule of reading what these unfortunate children have had done to them it is quite repulsive.

“I would be failing in my duty if I gave a community order for offences of this gravity.”

Judge Henry sentenced Waterman, of Humbers View, King's Somborne, to 16 months in prison.

He also ordered Waterman’s sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements to be extended to 10 years from the point of his sentencing.