A shy Carshalton man who was this week sentenced to three years behind bars for prolific dealing of child pornography on the internet said he has no idea why he did it.
Richard Taylor, 41, collected 6,500 images of pornography on his computer and stacked piles of newspaper cuttings about paedophilia around his home in Stanley Road.
Indecent photo stills and movies were meticulously catalogued and filed according to the nature of each sexual act.
Using his middle name Lawrence to sign off, Taylor sent the sick images many featuring children and in some cases, babies as email attachments to other perverts.
He would also engage in chat-room discussions about the images, writing such lines as I love this stuff.
In December last year, however, police stormed his house early in the morning after Greater Manchester Police uncovered Taylors activities during an investigation.
Police found his computer had been reconfigured to cope quickly and efficiently with the distribution of what Taylor called mucky pictures.
But during subsequent interviews with the police, he vowed he would never again look at another picture.
He pleaded guilty to four charges of distributing indecent photographs of a child under 16 and 10 offences of distributing indecent photographs in November and December last year.
Nicola Howard, defending, said Taylor was a very shy and nervous man who would struggle in a prison regime. She stressed the offence had not involved any contact with children and he had made no commercial gain from his activities.
Prior to the arrest, Mr Taylor had not considered the impact of this type of offence on the children involved, she said.
Over the last six months he has been advised of the very serious nature. He did say he would never look at another picture. He realises he should not have done it and he really does not understand himself why he started looking at this material.
But Judge George Bathurst-Norman ordered the sick films were shown in court so he could see for himself the seriousness of the offence.
He sentenced a frail-looking Taylor at Southwark Crown Court to three years and placed him on the sex offenders register.
