A JUDGE told a paedophile his horrific collection of 10,000 illegal images made him complicit in the ‘gross abuse’ of children.

Timothy O’Keefe , 44, had 9,988 images and videos on his computer and an external hard drive.

A total of 230 were rated at level five, the most serious child pornography available.

Another 2,042 were rated at level four.

He was jailed for two years at Oxford Crown Court on Friday after earlier admitting four counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing indecent images of children.

The court heard O’Keefe was lonely and fantasised he was someone he was not.

Matthew Walsh, prosecuting, said O’Keefe knew what officers had come for when they arrived at his home in Hawksmoor Road, North Oxford.

He later moved to Portsmouth.

He said: “Just take the hard drive, that’s what you’re looking for.”

One folder on the defendant’s computer, containing more than 5,000 images, was viewed by “three or four other people”, Mr Walsh added.

Henry James, defending, said his client lived a ‘piteous life’ and had recently been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

O’Keefe accessed images through meeting people via online message boards, the court was told.

Mr Walsh said these “were the only way in which he found an outlet, to have contact with the outside world”.

He said: “There’s almost a fantasy element to this, to be somebody he wasn’t.”

O’Keefe was jailed in 1989 for 12 counts of theft, the court heard.

Judge Christopher Compston said: “The children are grossly abused to make the photographs upon which he and his companions then look. You can’t have one without the other.”

He added: “I’m going to have to send you immediately to prison, I have absolutely no option.

“Level four and level five images are really very grim as you well know and there are far too many images.”