A man who shared thousands of child abuse images from a computer at his Tunbridge Wells home has been sentenced to more than two years in prison.

Police raided the home of Laurence Courtneidge in Acer Avenue on October 25, 2012.

Courtneidge admitted immediately that he was the man officers needed to speak to, and pointed detectives to his computer devices on which the images were stored.

Experts from the digital forensics unit at Kent Police established that Courtneidge had over 20,000 images in total, and had shared more than 11,000 images with other users.

He also had more than 200 videos, the majority of which were the most serious level, category A.

Courtneidge, who is now 25, was charged and later pleaded guilty to eight counts of offences relating to indecent images of children.

"Courtneidge amassed a vast collection of appalling images, some of which were among the worst seen by my team..." - DC Mikaela Leahy

He was not sentenced until Friday, when Maidstone Crown Court sent him to jail for 27 months.

DC Mikaela Leahy from the paedophile and online investigation team at Kent Police said: "Courtneidge amassed a vast collection of appalling images, some of which were among the worst seen by my team.

“He readily made much of this material available to others to download from him.

“This really does show that he lacked any insight into the real abuse that those in the photos were suffering, or the increased risk posed to other children because of the material that he was distributing to others.”

DC Leahy said: “I am glad that we have been able to bring him to justice, and we will continue to work tirelessly to identify offenders and protect children from harm.”

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