A CWMBRAN man jailed for seven years yesterday for a series of sex offences told the court he had made 1,650 indecent photographs.

Bradley Webb, (pictured) 42, posed as a teenage girl called Natasha and tried to persuade a 13-year-old from Cwmbran to discuss indecent acts on her e-mail, Cardiff crown court was told.

The girl's mother found her in a distressed state and following a police investigation Webb's computer was found to contain indecent images of children. It was also discovered that he had downloaded more than 1,600 indecent photos of children.

Webb, a Canadian national who came to Gwent ten years ago and who lived at the Tower, Southville, Cwmbran, was jailed for seven years.

He pleaded guilty to 23 sex offences - three of committing acts of gross indecency, four of possessing indecent pictures of children and 16 of making indecent photographs of children.

He asked for 1,650 offences of making indecent photographs to be taken into consideration.

The court ordered that all his computer equipment be confiscated and that he be disqualified from working with children and register as a sex offender upon his release, for life.

The judge told him: "The evil in respect of the indecent photos and making them, lies in the degradation, exploitation and abuse of the children involved. "I accept that you are at the end of a chain but that chain starts with the exploitation and abuse of children."

Regarding the indecency with children he said: "Horrible though they are, they were not the worst cases of their kind."

Prosecutor David Webster said the 13-year-old Gwent girl described how Webb had been indecent in front of her and a boy described similar behaviour.

Mr Webster said the "Natasha" e-mail had taken a sinister turn because the defendant tried to encourage the teenager to discuss indecent subjects and had even threatened to "tell on her". Stephen Jeary, defending, said: "He didn't touch either of the children or have either touch him."