A SEX offender wailed in the dock as he was jailed for 30 months and told he could be a danger to children in future.

Toby Henry Webster Ivison, 33, distributed sexual images of children and extreme pornography, said Michael Cahill, prosecuting.

He also mentioned a baby in sexual online chats with its mother and searched the internet for indecent pictures and videos of youngsters.

When police caught up with him he had a library of indecent videos and pictures of children, some of them very young.

Ivison's barrister Laura Addy said "It was something almost like watching on television. He was detached from it."

He had not physically approached or touched children.

Ivison had started drinking heavily following family tragedies. He also became addicted to adult pornography and that led to him meeting people online.

They sent him child sexual images, some of which he couldn't access, so he didn't realise how much was being sent.

Judge Simon Hickey said if someone moved from adult pornography to indecent images of children it was because they had a sexual interest in children.

He told Ivison: "I don't accept you are not a risk (to children)" and said details of the online chats were "concerning".

Jailing him for 30 months, the judge said of the images: "There were a large number of young children, who were clearly distressed."

He made Ivison subject indefinitely to a sexual harm prevention order controlling his use of the internet and access to children and put him on the sex offenders' register for life.

Ivison had 767 indecent videos of children of the worst kind, 271 videos of the next category and 95 of the lowest category. He also had 257 indecent pictures of children of the worst kind, 668 of the middle category and 1,018 of the least serious category, York Crown Court heard.

He had distributed six images of the most serious category, seven of the middle category and eight of the lowest category.

The 33-year-old of New Lane, Huntington, pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing indecent images of children, three of possessing indecent images of children, two of having extreme pornography, two of publishing obscene material, and one of having prohibited images of children.

Mr Cahill said police, acting on a tip-off raided Ivison's house in June 2019 and found the devices containing the indecent images. Checking his Cloud storage they found evidence that he had distributed images.

Ivison was released from arrest while they examined his phones and internet devices.

When he was rearrested on June 15, 2021, police found he had been distributing extreme pornography 10 days earlier.

Ms Addy said since his arrest Ivison had contacted sex offender rehabilitation charities.

"This defendant is very much embracing help," she said.