A SEX offender who categorised and catalogued photos of babies and young children suffering “brutal torture” and rape has been jailed.

Ian Willmott-Fruish searched the internet for images of tiny children being sexually abused to fend off depression, York Crown Court heard.

It was his second conviction for having indecent images of children.

Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said when police raided the 57-year-old’s home in May 2019, they found thousands of the illegal photos on his 37 computer devices.

“The Category A images are of brutal torture of young children and babies involving rape of them,” said the barrister.

“Clearly distress can be seen on these images.”

Willmott-Fruish’s solicitor advocate Graham Parkin said he had been diagnosed since his first conviction with having Asperger’s Syndrome.

“He categorises rather than looks at the images,” he said.

“Once downloaded he is more concerned with getting them catalogued and listed than (with them) as actual images.”

Willmott-Fruish would download the images when suffering from depression.

He would become aware that what he was doing was “disgusting” and he would stop, by which time his depression had lifted.

“You knew what you were doing was wrong,” said the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, to Willmott-Fruish.

“You told the author of the pre-sentence report you deliberately chose to seek out illegal images of children, knowing it was wrong.”

Willmott-Fruish, of Weeland Road, Beal, near Selby, pleaded guilty to three charges of having indecent images of children.

The judge took into account his mental condition as he jailed him for 16 months and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Mr Abraham said police found 1,731 photos of Category A images, the worst category, 1,443 of Category B and 4,024 of the least serious category.

Willmott-Fruish was jailed in Bristol in 2005 for 18 months, plus two years’ licence and put on the sex offenders’ register for life, for an earlier offence of possessing indecent images.