A pervert who downloaded and distributed thousands of images of child porn, including films of babies being tied up, whipped and raped, has been jailed.

Gary Seabourne, 36, was caught with a total of 1,145 pictures and films on his computer after an international police operation to smash internet child pornography gangs.

Chichester Crown Court heard how Seabourne, a reclusive child porn addict with a fascination for Dr Who memorabilia, would trawl internet chat rooms under the pseudonym R-U-MYMUMMY looking for hardcore filth.

When detectives traced him to his address in Northcote Road, Bognor, they uncovered the vile baby pictures.

They also found hundreds of other images and films showing children up to the age of 16 being raped, abused and assaulted.

The court heard how Seabourne would distribute the material to other paedophiles using the same internet sites to "gain more kudos" and access to further porn.

Prosecuting barrister, Mark Seymour, said: "He admitted to police that he had been viewing this sort of thing for about a year.

"He had this particular fascination for mothers and their babies which ultimately led him to these sites."

Detectives, working with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (CEOP), traced Seabourne through his internet account after infiltrating the website he was using and tracing his account.

They raided his home on December 5, 2006.

Although he had developed his child porn addiction over the previous year, the images and videos found on Seabourne's computer had all been downloaded in a ten day period prior to the police raid.

The court heard Seabourne, who had been sacked from his job after his arrest, had few friends and would spend much of his time alone in his bedroom on the internet.

Mr Seymour said Seabourne's girlfriend had been "shocked" at his child porn addiction but had stood by him.

Rachel Lane, defending Seabourne, said: "He was not a man who went out and attempted to engage children in sexual activity. He is thoroughly ashamed of what he did and knows it is wrong."

Sentencing him to three years in jail, Judge Anthony Thorpe told Seabourne he and other paedophiles were responsible for perpetuating a market for child porn.

He said: "Offences involving indecent photographs of young children, when distributed, are so serious that neither a fine alone nor a community sentence can be justified."

"Such photographs result from wide scale exploitation of children."

Seabourne was banned from working with children for life and put on the sex offenders' register.

Jim Warnock, head of CEOP Operations said: "This successful prosecution should send out a clear message to those like Gary Seabourne who think they can go online to sexually abuse children: they need to think again.

"Mr Seabourne is - like many others identified following Operation Chandler - now finding out that law enforcement is relentless in the pursuit of predators who are using new technologies to satisfy their sickening sexual interest in children."

OP Chandler fact box: The ground breaking co-ordinated police action, codenamed Operation Chandler, which caught Gary Seabourne, has identified 700 child porn suspects in 35 countries since it was started.

Around 200 of those suspects are in Britain.

The operation is credited with rescuing more than 31 children from abuse.

Much of the operation centred around the website ìKids the Light of Our Livesî, used by Seabourne and run by Timothy Cox, 28, from Buxhall, Suffolk.

Cox, who worked for his family's microbrewing business, was caught with 75,960 indecent images and sentenced to an indefinite period of detention in 2006.