A FORMER RAF serviceman who downloaded thousands of indecent images of children has been jailed for 12 months.

Andrew Knight was arrested after police raided his room at RAF Leeming, near Bedale, North Yorkshire, and seized his computer.

More than 15,000 indecent images of children were found on computer equipment he kept at the base for 100 Squadron, which operates Hawk and Tornado aircraft.

Detectives also found extreme pornographic images, featuring sex between adults and animals.

Knight, 40, pleaded guilty to four charges of possession of indecent photographs in April last year and a further charge of possessing 63 extreme pornographic images.

He also admitted ten charges of making an indecent image of a child between December 2009 and February 2011.

Andrew Scott, prosecuting at Lincoln Crown Court, said checks revealed Knight had been making images available for others to access over a file sharing website.

Chat log entries were found in which Knight, who has since resigned from the RAF and now lives with his parents in South Witham, Lincolnshire, discussed his interest in child pornography.

Mr Scott said: “The police also found 268 text files on a memory card containing stories concerning incest and sexual activity with children.”

When Knight was interviewed by detectives he admitted seeking out adult pornography on the internet, but denied he had an interest in children.

Judge Sean Morris placed Knight on the Sex Offenders’ Register for ten years and told him: “This is not a victimless crime. Far from it.

“Where there is a desire to see more and more that desire has to be fed by somebody somewhere. It involves some little girl who is going to be sexually abused in order to gratify those who like watching such things.

“This material generates that sort of abuse.”

Jonathon Dee, mitigating, said Knight was “consumed with shame”.

He said. “He would never have come before the court had the internet not been invented. It is the anonymity of the internet that allowed him to be in this position.

“Now he has lost his job and has severe depression.”