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Naveed Ishaq had downloaded a sickening amount of indecent images between March 2017 and August 2020, Bolton Crown Court heard on Monday.
The 48-year-old, from Bolton, had scoured the internet for vile images - as well as animal porn - and used chat rooms where he would ask: "Do you have any child porn about?"
He was eventually rumbled as part of a nationwide investigation - before telling police he was shocked at how easy it was to find the horrific material and insisting he was going to 'hand it to the police or a newspaper' as evidence.
The court heard that Ishaq was caught following an operation carried out by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which was investigating the sharing of indecent images of children on a New Zealand-based file sharing website called Mega.NZ.
The NCA found six email addresses registered on Mega.NZ which were believed to have been used by Ishaq to receive indecent material from the website, and five of the accounts were traced back to Ishaq's address.
Mr Connick told the court that the NCA passed its evidence to Greater Manchester Police, which carried out a search at Ishaq's home on Langthorne Walk, Bolton.
He said: "When officers informed the defendant why they were there, he said that he had been wanting to contact the police for some time to talk about the fact that you could get such things on the internet.
"He said he was simply a concerned citizen who had been downloading such images to show how easy it was."
Ishaq was arrested by police, who seized an iPad, two iPhones, a desktop computer, another phone and a laptop.
The court heard he told officers that further devices could be found at his home inside a washbag, which was hidden in a sofabed.
Police carried out another raid on Ishaq's address and found the bag, which contained more devices including external hard drives and a memory card.
Officers analysed the devices and found a shocking amount of indecent images of children - both still images and video.
There were 31,307 category A images, 29,256 category B images, and 327,531 category C images - a total of 388,094.
Mr Connick said the images included children aged from just one-year-old to 17, adding: "Many of the victims appeared to be distressed and in severe pain."
Police found 47 images of extreme pornography involving animals - including a video which also featured a child - as well as a vile 120-page paedophile manual on 'how to practice child love'.
Officers also found evidence of web visits, bookmarks and downloads which indicated the various files Ishaq had accessed and the disgusting search terms he had used - including 'pre-teen hardcore' and 'rape' - as well as online chat logs to ask for more files.
Ishaq had used 'secretive internet browsers' in an attempt to cover his tracks, Mr Connick added.
Defending, John Harrison said his client was a man of previous good character who pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, and told the court his wife was 'entirely dependent on him'.
He said that Ishaq claims that the 'desperate' excuse he first gave to police - that he intended to hand over the material as a 'concerned citizen' - was one he made 'out of fear' following the raid at his home.
Mr Harrison added: "It's quite clear that the thought processes of [Ishaq] need to be tackled."
Judge Martin Walsh, honorary recorder of Bolton, handed Ishaq a two-year prison sentence but told him he would serve half of it before being released on licence.
Ishaq also must sign a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
"The amount of material here is grotesque," Judge Walsh said.
"This was a systematic and committed searching for prohibited material over an extended period of time.
"Having regard to the aggravating features here, only an immediate sentence of custody can be justified."
All items seized from Ishaq which contained the material will be destroyed.