A PEADOPHILE who used Twitter to share depraved images of children being sexually abused was spared jail after he admitted having a “morbid fascination” with child abuse.

Francis Thomas, 66, of North Road, Westcliff, admitted downloading hundreds of images to his phone and computers over five years, but said he got no sexual gratification from them and was impotent.

However, Basildon Crown Court heard Thomas had social media accounts under the name Vanilla Scream and used them to share images and chat with other paedophiles.

Lynne Shirley, prosecuting, said: “There was an even split between boys and girls. The majority were aged six and upwards.

“The youngest was a boy around six months and the oldest was 15 years old.”

The court heard 203 images were in the most serious category A, involving children being raped, while there were 344 category B images and 1,323 category C images.

Francis also had a collection of images involving animal abuse, other extreme sexual acts and sick cartoons of children.

He admitted three counts of possession of child abuse images, one count of distributing two category C images and two counts of possessing extreme pornography.

The court heard Francis was caught after officer from Essex Police’s online investigation team (POLIT) noticed his Twitter activity.

He was arrested and his devices were then seized, including a phone installed with the Kik messaging app, which he had protected with another encryption app.

Matthew Morgan, mitigating, said Francis only accessed the images because of a “morbid fascination”.

He said: “He maintains it was not done for sexual gratification for himself for medical reasons and because of his impotence.”

Referring to a report by the Probation Service, Mr Morgan said a pair of binoculars kept at the window of his 13th floor flat were “for looking at boats, not children”.

He said: “There was no evidence that he was part of a sophisticated group trading and sharing these images.”

Judge Ian Graham handed Francis an eight month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

He must sign the sex offender’s register for ten years and his internet use will be monitored. Thomas was also ordered to pay £600 costs.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “Make no mistake, by publicly sharing these horrific and depraved images Thomas was complicit in the sexual abuse of children.

“Claiming he had no sexual gratification from the abuse does not dilute the seriousness of his crimes.

“Sharing and possessing child abuse images is a serious offence and we must never forget that children are being seriously assaulted when these pictures are produced.

“For help and support children can contact ChildLine 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 0800 1111 or by visiting childline.org.uk.”