A SINGLE father who traded child abuse pictures with other perverts and discussed raping a five-year-old during sickening online exchanges has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Keith Richards faced prison for what his own barrister described as “distasteful, awful, horrendous chat” and “plainly abhorrent and disgusting” behaviour.

The 39-year-old forklift truck driver was said in court to have “inadvertently and accidentally” made contact with paedophiles on the Kik Messenger chat-room.

He is said to have been socially-isolated, at a low ebb, working long hours and drinking too much when he got involved in the photo swapping and rape talk.

His lawyer Shaun Dryden told Teesside Crown Court: “It was not a paedophile site. It was a messenger group and the conversation was about adult females, and it appears men on that site would share pictures of their partners with others.

“It is not the position that this defendant was actively seeking out sites where images of children were being shared. It was [another user] who encouraged the defendant to effectively trade images. When one looks at the text chat between the two, it is plainly abhorrent and it is plainly disgusting.

“Is it simply fantasy talk between two rather sad individuals, was it ever going to be acted upon, was there ever going to be a meeting, and was a child ever in danger?

“It is distasteful, awful, horrendous chat. The defendant is embarrassed, he is ashamed, he is mortified by his behaviour.

“He is from a respectable working family. His parents are standing by him, although they are ashamed of his behaviour..

“There are references which show what sort of man the defendant was and, indeed, could be again, but for this horrendous aberration for a few short weeks last year.”

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield told the court that an examination of his iPad and mobile phone showed Richards had shared 18 indecent images.

He came to the attention of police after they had arrested and tested the electronic equipment of the other man, and one of the photos he had showed a man with a tattoo - which turned out to be Richards.

He was arrested at work in Eaglescliffe after the ink link was made, and he immediately confessed to trading pictures and taking part in what Mr Hadfield described as “grotesque conversation”.

Richards, of Master Road, Thornaby, near Stockton, who has no previous convictions, admitted seven charges of distributing indecent images of children and two of making them.

He was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to go on the sex offenders’ treatment programme as part of a rehabilitation activity requirement.

Judge Peter Armstrong also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to restrict his computer and internet use, and stop him having unsupervised contact with under-16s, and pay £400 costs.

The judge told him: “You and others were effectively egging each other on, and the conversations were becoming more and more extreme about sexual fantasies involving young children.

“No-one reading those could fail to be both disgusted and disturbed by them.”