A postman who downloaded nearly 4,000 indecent images of children has been jailed.
Richard Smith, 60, of Elms Road, Worksop, pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs of children at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.
His case was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court where he was given 12 months in prison, of which he will serve half, and the remainder on licence.
He will be on a sexual harm prevention order and will have to sign the sex offenders' register for ten years.
Recorder Mark Watson told Smith: "These were images of children being abused by adults. The shame and trauma they have endured puts your shame into insignificance".
He said he was perfectly satisfied by the numbers of the images, the types of images and the period he downloaded them that "you looked at them to fulfil your own sexual needs."
The court heard how officers had attended Smith's home address and he volunteered his mobile phone and laptop, which he said were the only devices he used to contact the internet.
Smith was interviewed and admitted accessing the internet and viewing indecent images of children but denied he had any sexual interest in them.
When the laptop was analysed, he had accessed 903 still and moving images in Category A - the most serious.
There were 1,397 still and three moving indecent images of children in Category B, and 1,611 images in Category C.
The images depicted children as young as three years to teenagers.
The court heard, in mitigation, that: "He must accept that he has a problem and he accepts he must do something about it".
His barrister said Smith cares for his wife who is on the critical list for persons at risk of Covid in a serious way.
He is a postman and does his rounds and does not go into peoples' homes and socially distances at the depot.
His barrister stressed Smith had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had an unblemished record before these offences came to light.
