A SEX offender who hunted for snaps and movies of exploited youngsters online walked from court with a community order.

Michael Myles scoured the internet for more than 6,500 indecent images and 257 videos of abused children as young as three-months-old.

The 41-year-old faced Judge Ian Pringle QC for sentence on Tuesday, leaving Oxford Crown Court with a two-year community order, a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a sexual harm prevention order.

The judge said: "Anyone who has had the misfortune, as I have had, of looking at category A images [the most serious offence] in order to deal with offences of this nature, can testify to the fact that they are utterly appalling.

"By downloading these images you create a market – a market for the abuse of children – and I hope you remember that for the rest of your life."

Police stormed Myles' Abingdon home in Gainsborough Green after suspecting he was downloading child pornography on October 6, 2015.

The paedophile immediately identified himself to officers in the multi-occupancy home, declaring 'I'm guilty as charged', prosecutor Henry James said.

Illegal material was uncovered on mobile phones and a laptop seized from Myles' home, the court heard.

Defence barrister Lucy Tapper said Myles, who must sign the sex offenders register and pay costs and a victim surcharge, had been on a 'spiral of discontent', feeling an immediate release when arrested.

The defendant, who has autism, claimed he was in a 'dark place', spending days at a time perched behind his laptop, the barrister said.

Ms Tapper added: "It was like a parasite eating away at him. He looks back with shame and disgust."

Myles, who must pay a victim surcharge, would be 'vulnerable' behind bars and hopes to take up a job offer out of the area in hospitality, the barrister claimed.

He admitted three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child on or before October 6, 2015.

Judge Pringle also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the mobile phones and laptop.