A paedophile from Stafford who was caught with 50,000 vile child sex abuse pictures has been jailed.

Oliver Cadden, 43, was described as having "almost an industrial scale" of disgusting indecent images, many of which were of children under the age of 10. Stafford Crown Court heard that police discovered images and videos of abused youngsters on a storage tower and external hard drive in Stafford.

Cadden was sentenced to 16 months in prison. The judge ruled that he had a "deep-seated" sexual interest in children.

The material was downloaded between August 24, 2019, and April 7, 2020, according to StaffordshireLive.

Cadden admitted three counts of making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of children and another charge of possessing an extreme pornographic image. He also admitted a charge of possessing extreme images.

Prosecutor Andrew Wallace said the images involved girls and boys. Cadden used search words such as "pre-teen" and "hardcore."

The defendant was caught with 12,163 of the most serious category A images, including 831 videos. There were also 8,458 category B images, with 410 videos, and 31,800 category C images, with more than 400 videos.

During a police interview on September 27, 2021, Cadden accepted responsibility for downloading the images but declined to comment on sharing the files.

Jason Holt, defending, said Cadden had sought help for his offending and was remorseful. He had written to the judge along with his father, brother, and ex-wife, with whom he still has a good relationship.

Mr. Holt said: "He doesn't shy away from what's behind his offending and sorting these problems out. He's starting to come to terms with that behaviour."

Judge John Edwards said he would give full credit for the guilty plea and Cadden's honesty in his letter. He said: "I can see you are genuinely remorseful." The judge added that this was Cadden's first criminal activity.

However, he said those who access such material from the dark web only encourage the abuse of children to continue. He added that the volume of images suggested a "deep-seated, engraved sexual interest in children."

Cadden, of Elworthy Close, in Beaconside, Stafford, was jailed for 16 months. He was also made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order and will spend 10 years on the sexual offences register. It was ordered that the computer and all of the materials were destroyed.