A MARRIED man caught with more than 200 films of children being sexually abused and extreme animal pornography is behind bars.

Some of the disturbing videos Stephen Parker, from Blaenau Gwent, downloaded from the internet showed the young victims in “pain and distress”, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Thomas Stanway said it had taken days for the defendant to download some of the movies from a torrent site.

Parker had more than 180 category A images which depict the most serious examples of child sexual abuse.

The child victims in all the films he had were aged between five and 14 and were mostly of girls.

The 55-year-old, of Orchard Street, Brynmawr, was caught after officers from Gwent Police’s high tech crime unit raided his home last month.

When the search warrant was executed, Parker told them they would find what they were looking for on his computer.

During his police interview, the defendant denied to detectives that he had a sexual interest in children and claimed he watched the films “out of curiosity”.

He told them he had not shown them or distributed them to anyone else.

Parker pleaded guilty to making 184 category A films, 20 at category B and eight at category C.

He also admitted possessing 21 extreme pornographic images involving animals.

All the offences were committed between June 8 and July 10 this year although he admitted accessing similar material for a number of months.

The court heard Parker had 24 previous convictions for 55 offences, which included fraud and theft, but none for sex crimes.

Jeffrey Jones, mitigating, said his client was married and added: “He lives an isolated existence and his relationship, his marriage, is currently on the rocks and he has been separated for some time.”

His barrister told the court that Parker had been held on remand since his arrest last month.

Mr Jones said: “He has been to prison before for dissimilar matters and finds it, at his age, hard and a complete shock to the system.”

He invited the court to pass a sentence in which the defendant could be rehabilitated.

But Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said the offences were so serious that she could only impose immediate custody.

Parker was jailed for 20 months and told he must register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.

He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for a decade and must pay a victim surcharge upon his release from jail.