A CARDIGAN man with a library of child pornography had images of a child as young as five years of age being raped, a judge was told today.

Mark Churchley, 49, denied gaining sexual gratification from looking at the images, But a police expert found he had trawled the internet using terms such as “pre teen hard core” and “incest.”

Churchley was told a prison sentence would not be long enough for his offending to be addressed. Instead, he was made the subject of a three-year community order with a requirement to attend a sex offenders’ programme.

Churchley, now of Maes Glas, admitted possessing 128 indecent images of children, including films, and 182 indecent, prohibited cartoons.

Rhys Thomas, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court how police raided his then home in Greenfield Square, Cardigan, on March 18 and removed a computer from his bedroom.

An expert found 31 images that fell into the most serious Category A and depicted children being raped. He also found seven films depicting images classed as being in Categories B and C.

Mr Thomas said the youngest child to be seen in the Category A images appeared to be aged five or six.

Janet Gedrych, representing Churchley, said he now accepted he must have had “some fascination” in the images.

All the offending had taken place over a couple of months and he now felt deeply ashamed, even to the point of being wary about how he looked at children in the street.

The judge, Mr Recorder Peter Rouch, said those who downloaded child pornography prolonged the abuse necessary to create the images in the first place.