Jail for 400,000 abuse images man

A man from Merseyside who had one of the "largest collections" of child abuse images ever found in the UK has been jailed, a court has heard.

Michael Morgan was jailed for 10 months after police found 400,000 images and videos on 13 computers at his home in Hastings Road, Waterloo.

Morgan, 26, was caught after the FBI traced an email paying for access to a paedophile site back to him.

Morgan admitted 25 charges of downloading at Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard Morgan had paid $50 to subscribe for 30 days to the Michigan based website in July 2004.

'Abominable images'

It gave him access to images of youngsters aged between two and 14 years old, Merseyside Police discovered when the FBI passed the information on.

Among his collection were 5,000 videos, some hours long, said the prosecution.

Judge William George described the collection as "abominable images" involving the "exploitation of innocent children".

Morgan, who now lives in The Glebe, West Lothian, Scotland, admitted 25 charges involving downloading 395,048 indecent images between January 15, 2000 and June 2, 2005.

He ordered the former genetics student to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and banned him from working with children or using software to download information which could be encrypted.