A PAEDOPHILE pensioner tried to hide thousands of sick images of children that he had downloaded.

Terence Coomber, 78, had images of children being sexually abused and hid them on a USB stick under his kitchen sink.

He had also installed computer software to wipe any record of the disgusting things he had searched for.

Coomber was already convicted for similar offences and was serving a suspended sentence, and a Sexual Harm Prevention order was meant to restrict his access to computers.

As part of the order he was subject to visits by police, who found he had installed new blocking software, and had hidden images.

Coomber, of Stanford Avenue, Brighton, was jailed for three years and two months at Lewes Crown Court.

Police say he was found with more than 6,600 child pornography images on his computer and USB sticks, despite previous court orders.

PC David Muddle said: “Coomber clearly decided to pursue his vile sexual interests despite his previous conviction and although there is no evidence that any of the images, taken from the internet, were of local children, each image was of a child being sexually abused.”

The officer said Coomber had shown a “flagrant” breach of court orders.

Coomber admitted 11 further counts of possessing of indecent images of children.

It included 1,500 of the most serious types of images, showing some very young children being sexually abused.

Another offence included an image showing a person performing sex acts with animals. He will remain on he sex offenders register for life.