A MAN who downloaded and swapped child abuse images with others has been sent to jail.

Police raided Gareth Sheridan’s home in St Helens and found thousands of the disturbing images, many of them videos, and some showing babies as young as six months old.

Sheridan, who had been helped by the Prince’s Trust as a young man, also had in his possession extreme pornographic images involving a dog.

Judge Anil Murray told the 30-year-old mobile telephone salesman that he accepted he has some mental health problems but said: “The only appropriate sentence is immediate imprisonment.”

Sheridan, of Fernhill Walk, Clock Face, had pleaded guilty to seven offences involving distributing 17 indecent images; downloading and possessing such images; possessing a prohibited image of a child and possessing extreme pornography. The offences occurred between August 2017 and January 1, 2020.

Lee Bonner, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that police raided Sheridan’s home in January 2020 and his electronic devices were seized.

The indecent material was found on his Acer laptop and his Samsung Galaxy mobile phone. 

A total of 2407 indecent images of children were discovered in all three categories of seriousness.

Accounts linked to him included the names “Blackbrook Bad Boy”, “Gazza” and “Shezza” and it was found that he had used WhatsApp as well as Skype for his illegal activities.

On his laptop a total of 414 Skype conversation threads were uncovered containing more than 24,000 messages.  

“Police isolated one thread which demonstrated how he had been using it for sending and receiving illegal child abuse material,” said Mr Bonner.

That one thread involved sending 20 images, 17 of them videos in the most serious category, he added.

Mr Bonner said that Sheridan had used cloud storage sites for some of the material, again including videos. He had 610 images in an easily accessible folder on his laptop and sites he had been visiting.

“Some of the children depicted were aged about four or five and one showed a six month old baby in distress,” he said.

Paul Becker, defending, said that it was conceded that it was a serious case involving persistent behaviour and a large number of images.

“He accepts he played a role in perpetrating the market for child abuse and accepts the revulsion felt by society as a whole.”

Mr Becker said that the defendant has struggled with his mental health and is ashamed and regretful about what he has done.

“He has lost everything. He was in a relationship which came to an abrupt end.

"He has not felt able to tell his family or employers.

He added his client is "fragile and "has self-harmed.”

He had been bullied as a child but obtained GCSEs despite dyslexia and was helped by the Prince’s Trust. He has worked for the last decade with Tesco, latterly as a mobile phone salesman.

“He knows he needs help to make sure he does not re-offend,” added Mr Becker.

Judge Murray imposed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered Sheridan to sign the Sex Offenders Register for the same length of time.