A JUDGE who jailed a pervert caught with thousands of child abuse images was applauded from the public gallery as he passed sentence.

Peter Vandijk was jailed for 12-months after he amassed a sickening collection of more than 20,000 images of children as young as babies being sexually abused.

The 63-year-old was arrested at Manchester Airport last March as he arrived on a flight from Amsterdam after information from the National Crime Agency was passed to officers.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he stored his perverted collection on his iPad.

Victoria Lamballe, prosecuting, said the iPad had 4,560 Category A images at the worst level, 2,564 Category B and 13,790 at Category C – totalling 20,914 images.

Vandijk, of Fescue Close, Stockton, pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of indecent images, a charge of possessing extreme pornography and a further charge of possession of a prohibited image of a child.

Rachel Cooper, in mitigation, said the defendant had since been paying for psychotherapy as a private patient which he would continue on his release.

Judge Jonathan Carroll said that the sheer volume of the pornographic images was so serious that an immediate custody sentence was justified.

Vandijk was jailed for 12 months, given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years restricting his use of the internet and ordered to register as a Sex Offender for the same period.

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