A PAEDOPHILE who downloaded more than 45,000 indecent images including photos of children being raped has been jailed.

Serial offender Andrew Bayliss, of The Willows in Grove, abused a seven-year-old boy and used the “dark web” – the portion of the internet not accessible by normal search engines – to find and exchange pictures of child abuse.

The 41-year-old has been jailed for six years and eight months at Oxford Crown Court for 27 offences. Bayliss has served a prison term for sexual crimes against children after he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in 2003.

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Yesterday he admitted six counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two counts of having sexual activity with a child and two counts of voyeurism. He also pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making indecent images of children, five counts of possessing indecent images of children and one count of distributing indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Sarah Gaunt said the offences took place between December 2008 and September 2014.

She told Judge Ian Pringle that Bayliss downloaded 46,561 indecent images, including 2,300 videos, of young boys aged from infancy to 13 years old.

Miss Gaunt said some of the “grotesque” photos showed children as young as three being raped and subjected to torture. She said the defendant also posed as a 12-year-old girl on websites. And the barrister added on two occasions Bayliss filmed himself abusing a seven-year-old boy.

Peter Du Feu, defending, said his client had been completely open with the police and wanted help fighting his “addiction”. He said: “He desperately doesn’t want to be this man.”

Judge Pringle said it was clear Bayliss still had the support of his friends and family. He said: “It is difficult to see how someone like you can commit these sort of offences. And it should be said also that the extreme level of the images you possessed would absolutely horrify almost every member of our society.”

Judge Pringle said in his view Bayliss was a dangerous offender and he made him subject to an extra five years and four months on licence.

An indefinite sexual offences prevention order banning contact with children or unrestricted access to the internet was also made.