A FORMER ambulance worker was caught with more than 6,000 child abuse videos and pictures.

Robert Pritchard, 65, of Woodside, Duffryn, Newport tried to explain his offending away by saying it was down to a mix of “old age and alcohol”.

The defendant’s home was raided last February and his offending was discovered to stretch back nearly 25 years to 1999.

Pritchard had used search terms such as “jailbait” to trawl the internet, Newport Crown Court was told.

MORE NEWS: Drug runner was delivering cannabis all over city

The illegal material he had were images of girls aged between the ages of eight and 15.

They included 63 category A images, the most serious kind, 165 category B images and 6,507 category C images.

Heath Edwards, prosecuting, said: “The police describe the defendant as being lost for words when they executed their search warrant.

“He denied knowingly downloading the child abuse images and he sought to blame a combination of old age and alcohol for the presence of such material on his computer.”

Pritchard admitted three counts of possession of an indecent photograph of a child and one count of possession of an indecent pseudo-photograph of a child.

He also pleaded guilty to possession of an extreme pornographic images involving bestiality where a dog was performing oral sex on a woman.

The defendant was a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.

The court heard Pritchard was an ex-ambulance service employee who had worked as a volunteer in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s during the Yugoslav Wars.

Jenny Yeo representing him said: “The defendant has done something which he is ashamed and very sorry for."

Pritchard has suffered serious ill health in recent years and “struggles with loneliness”.

His barrister added: “He’s someone who is very motivated to change his behaviour.”

The judge, Recorder Christian Jowett, jailed the defendant for 12 months but suspended the sentence for 18 months.

Pritchard will have to carry out 200 hours of unpaid and complete a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He was made the subject of a 12-month alcohol treatment requirement and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

The defendant will have to register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.