Description
A paedophile downloaded child rape videos on a laptop he shared with his mum.
Michael Pegg amassed a sickening collection, which featured more than 5,000 indecent images of children.
The 44-year-old transferred the files to a hard drive so his mum wouldn't find out, then viewed them on his TV.
When he was caught by police, the pervert blamed his behaviour on using "a lot of cannabis and ecstasy".
But he walked free from court after a judge said he now recognised he had a problem and was "open to help to put it right".
Liverpool Crown Court heard officers raided Pegg and his mum's home in Hall Street, Southport, on July 4 last year.
Fiona McNeill, prosecuting, said police told Pegg they were acting on intelligence that his internet address had been used to download indecent images and asked if he knew anything about this, before he was cautioned and arrested.
A search was carried out and electrical items seized, including a laptop from one room and a hard drive from another.
Ms McNeill said: "When police took the hard drive the defendant said 'that's got my naughty stuff on'."
The court heard Pegg was taken to hospital before he was interviewed due to concerns about his mental health.
Police experts found eight Category A - the most serious category - still images and videos of children being raped on his devices, including one showing a girl aged between six and eight.
Devastating consequences of watching child sex abuse online
There were 214 Category B, 5,309 Category C, and in total 5,531 indecent images of children.
When interviewed, Pegg accepted making the comment to the police and said he downloaded the files on torrent sites.
Ms McNeill said he admitted downloading the files over four to five years and said he would then delete them "because he knew it was wrong".
Pegg said he saved some files on his hard drive and would then connect this to his TV to view them.
Ms McNeill said he conceded there were "quite a lot" of indecent images of children of different ages.
She said: "He said he didn't know how he became interested in this material and said he felt disgusted in himself.
"He said he made sure the images were transferred so his mum didn't see them on the laptop, which she also used as well."
Ms McNeill added: "He said at the time of downloading the images he was using a lot of cannabis and ecstasy.
"He denied having any sexual interest in children any longer, but accepted at the time he did."