A PAEDOPHILE has admitted sharing hundreds of indecent images online.

Stuart Clarke pleaded guilty to 15 charges at Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday after a raid on his house.

The 26-year-old had viewed and shared a number of stills and videos rated at levels four and five, the most depraved depictions of child abuse.

Clarke, of Valley Road, Horspath, near Oxford, admitted 15 counts of distributing indecent photographs and one count of making indecent photographs.

In all, he sent 379 images via a Hotmail email address to fellow internet users.

The court heard he was found with 49 other images on a hard drive.

Prosecutor Mohamed Sheikh said officers raided Clarke’s then home in London Road, Wheatley, on May 26, 2010.

He said Clarke told police his offending began when he was contacted by a paedophile in a chatroom.

He said he got no sexual gratification from it but “it became a habit”.

Magistrates decided their sentencing powers, limited to dishing out six months in jail, were not sufficient and sent the case to Oxford Crown Court.

Clarke was bailed to be sentenced there on April 30.