PERVERT Dirk Edge was told there would be no market for child sex abuse pornography if it wasn't for the likes of him.
Sentencing Edge, 48, formerly of Southland Court, Grimsby, Judge Mark Bury said: "Someone, somewhere has abused a child. If it was not for people like you there would not be the market for such abuse that there is."
Grimsby Crown Court heard that Edge, a lorry driver who admitted being "addicted" to pornography, had compiled 12,000 images of sexually abused children, hundreds of them of an extreme nature.
The judge sentenced him to 11 months in prison and ordered him to be placed on The Sex Offenders' Register for ten years.
A sexual offender prevention order was also imposed restricting Edge's access to the internet.
The defendant admitted six offences of making indecent images of children.
Prosecuting, Jeremy Evans told how police found the images after a complaint was made by a 14-year-old girl contacted by Edge.
She was a friend of the teenage son of a fellow lorry driver Edge had befriended.
Edge denied any wrong-doing and police took no further action.
He moved out of the Grimsby area to Leeds, but as part of their investigation police visited his former home in Southland Court and seized two laptops.
Analysis of the history of the deleted images uncovered thousands of images of sexually abused children dated September 28 last year.
Edge was arrested in Leeds in October and taken to Pudsey Police Station.
During an interview, he admitted he was addicted to pornography, that he was responsible for downloading the images and that he had accessed illegal websites.
For Edge, Richard Hackfath said his client suffered mental health problems and had a personality disorder causing social isolation.
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