A Shropshire father who downloaded some of the worst pornographic images of children a judge had ever seen was today jailed for a total of 28 months.
Matthew Rowlands, of Copthorne, Shrewsbury, had previously admitted possessing 5,316 indecent images of children, distributing 1,398 images, and 15 charges of making indecent images of children.
He had also admitted inciting another man to abuse a child.
Judge Robin Onions, sentencing at Shrewsbury Crown Court, said: “As a father of two young children, how could you go and view images like these? At least one of the images I saw was a child no older than a few years of age. Some of the images were the worst I have seen.”
He said: “You have a successful business and a good income and it really does beggar belief why you put all that at risk by indulging in this behaviour.”
The 35-year-old was given 16 months in prison for distributing the images, eight months for possession of the images, and four months for encouraging another man to abuse a child, to run consecutively.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and forbidden from having any contact with children under the age of 16 without permission from social services.
Judge Onions said that the case involved the greatest number of images he had come across.
