Ashley Payne: Man jailed for 'horrifying' child sex abuse images

Ashley Payne was jailed for two years and four months at Nottingham Crown Court

A man who downloaded and distributed thousands of child sex abuse images has been jailed.

Nottinghamshire Police said Ashley Payne was found with 18,000 pictures and videos, many of them "showing the most serious sexual abuse" inflicted on children.

Specialist officers were also able to prove the 27-year-old had shared more than 500 of the images with others.

Payne was jailed for 28 months at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

Officers investigated Payne, of Stonechurch View, Annesley, after receiving a tip-off.

Several electronic devices were seized from his home and detectives were later able to link them to a high-capacity cloud storage account hosted abroad.

In police interviews, Payne said he could not remember accessing the images because of a medical condition.

'Horrifying collection'

He pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child, three counts of distributing indecent photographs, one count of possessing an indecent image, and one count of possessing extreme pornography at an earlier hearing.

He was also added to the sex offenders register for 10 years and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order that will tightly restrict his online activities once he is released.

Under the terms of the order, Payne will have to declare all internet capable devices to Nottinghamshire Police and make them available for inspection at regular intervals.

Det Con Thomas Nuttall said: "Payne amassed a horrifying collection of child sexual abuse images and later shared this material with others.

"Behind each of these photographs and videos is a real child somewhere in the world suffering the most appalling abuse at the hands of adults.

"Payne is very tech savvy and went to great lengths to hide this material from others."