A paedophile who pleaded guilty to possessing and making indecent images and videos has been jailed for five years.

Ross McCartney, 41, of Wolsey Road, Cutteslowe, Oxford, was sentenced after pleading guilty to 18 counts of possessing and seven counts of making indecent images.

Police found 21,000 pictures when they seized a computer belonging to McCartney in September 2004.

The quantity was so great that it took Oxfordshire's hi-tech crime unit a year and a half to sift through the images. By the time they came to charge McCartney in March this year, he had downloaded a further 6,000 indecent images to his laptop.

The still images found on the computer seized from McCartney in 2004 included 15 of the most serious category of pornographic images.

McCartney was also found guilty of making 2,078 images by burning them from the hard drive on to CDs.

He was given a five-year sentence with the recommendation that he serve 18 months behind bars and the remaining three and a half years on licence.

Passing sentence at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Anthony King said: "This is a very serious offence.

"It is serious because of the volume of material that was in your possession and which you downloaded.

"It is aggravated by the fact that having once been searched by the police and released on bail you committed offences. I am also satisfied that, unless I do my best to prevent you, there is a significant risk that you will repeat these offences and that children will suffer substantial harm."

He said he was handing out a significant sentence in order to "reflect the seriousness of the offences and to protect the public and young children from persons like you."

Defending, Rachel Drake said: "This is a straightforward downloading case.

"Yes, there is quite persistent use and a high number of images, but there is no sharing and no proximity to the victims other than accessing these sites which anyone can put their hands on if they put their mind to it."