A RELENTLESS paedophile caught once again with thousands of depraved images of child sex abuse has been jailed.

The sizeable haul of banned images found on Christian Derrick's iPad included photographs of children being tortured and one-year-old babies being sexually abused.

After previously being jailed for similar offences Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday that his offending was 'escalating' and he had tried to contact a single mother online in an apparent bid to sexually abuse her child.

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The 42-year-old of Priory Road, Bicester, appeared at the court yesterday after admitting a string of counts relating to indecent images of children.

Derrick pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent images, one of distributing an image and one of possessing prohibited images.

He also admitted four counts of breaching a previously imposed sexual harm prevention order.

Prosecutors said Derrick had been jailed for similar offences in 2016 and released on licence on January 25 last year.

On August 23 police went to his address and on raiding the home an iPad and Sky Q Box were discovered, putting him in breach of his previous court order, and he was arrested.

Further investigation of the Apple device found thousands of indecent images and movies of children on it.

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In total there were 2,209 in category A - the most severe category, 2,183 in category B and 1,343 in category C.

He had also sent a single image which was classed in category C.

Prosecutors said that among the images were children as young as two being raped and some involved the torture of a child.

The court heard the images found were 'especially grave' and ranged from 12-month to 12-year-olds.

It was also revealed that Derrick had sent a friend request to a woman on Facebook so that he could sexually abuse her child.

In mitigation his defence barrister Robert Lindsey said that his client had not used the 'dark net' to find the images and had taken courses aimed at tackling his offending while in prison.

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He said Derrick's predilection for child abuse imagery could be traced back to the death of his mother in 2007.

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb said there were 'persistent breaches' and a 'history of disobedience' of court orders.

Derrick was jailed for a total of six years and a further three years on licence.