A Rhyl man, who had a collection of thousands of illegal child images, was told by a crown court judge on Thursday that he had a distorted attitude which would disturb the public.

Judge Niclas Parry told widower John Reynolds, 67, that he had sought to justify what he had done by claiming that children were sexually knowing and that they wanted the sex.

He did not seem to understand that the downloading of images created a demand for more.

The defendant had no regard for the potential consequences for females who were unwilling participants in images of extreme pornography, involving images of sex acts between them and animals.

Reynolds on his own admission had a sexual interest in children as young as ten.

Twenty years ago he had possessed indecent material for gain when he sold indecent videos.

Nine years ago he had received a suspended sentence for possessing extreme images.

But that had failed to deter him, said Judge Parry.

Police had found hundreds of images of extreme porn and a collection of images involving the abuse of young children.

"By your own admission you have a sexual interest in children as young as ten," he said.

Judge Parry said that he had given very careful consideration to whether the case could be resolved in the community.

He had even adjourned the case for further inquiries to be made over a possible alcohol treatment programme.

But it was clear from his attitude that he had no interest in accepting any assistance.

The judge said that he could not be assured that there was any realistic prospect of a community order protecting the public.

He was therefore jailed for nine months.

Reynolds was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for ten years.

A ten year sexual harm prevention order was made.

He admitted making by downloading one category B image, making 8,400 category C images and possessing 227 extreme images.

Prosecuting barrister Richard Edwards told how in excess of 200,000 other images had been found by police which had not been categorised.

They were found on four devices after police executed a search warrant at his home in January.

Reynolds said that he did not realise that he had that many.

Defending barrister Jo Maxwell said that it was an escalation in his offending.

He was a hard-working man who worked shifts.

Reynolds lived alone since the death of his wife some ten years ago and appeared to spend his free time accessing images

There were none of the most serious category A images and there was only one category B.

The remainder were category C images which were the least serious and there was a bestiality side to the case.

He had previous convictions but there was a long gap between them.