A SEX offender from Worcester had the most 'despicable' images of child abuse which came to light after alleged 'Twitter sex chats' with girls.

Jonathan Hancocks was visited by police at his then home in Osier Close, Worcester after police were alerted to 'sexualised conversations' with girls on the popular social media platform.

However, the father-of-two has since had to move out of his family home in the city because of the offences which involved videos of girls as young as four being abused.

The 27-year-old, who has also resigned as a bus driver, appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Friday after admitting making (downloading) hundreds of indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography involving women and animals.

Michael Aspinall, prosecuting, said although no charges arose out of the defendant's activities on Twitter, which took place in September and November last year, officers visited his home on December 22 last year as part of their investigations.

When arrested, Hancocks handed over his Samsung mobile phone which contained indecent images of children uploaded to MEGA, an encrypted Cloud storage application.

In total they found 246 images of category A, the most serious category within the sentencing guidelines, all movies which showed children between the ages four and nine years old.

They also found 59 moving and 25 still category B images and 85 moving and two still category C images. Hancocks also had a Dropbox account which contained 13 'extreme pornographic images' involving women, horses and dogs.

He was interviewed on December 22 last year, telling officers he was 'not sexually aroused' by the images but was responsible for them being stored.

Hancocks entered guilty pleas when he appeared before magistrates in Worcester on July 15 this year.

There he admitted three counts of making indecent images (one count for each category of images) between May 27, 2014 and December 23 last year.

Robert Tolhurst, defending, said his client made admissions in interview, co-operated with police in providing the digital devices and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

Also advanced as mitigation was Hancock's relative youth, previous good character and the personal steps he had taken to address his behaviour, including engaging with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

The defendant had lost his relationship with his partner of six years as a result of his conviction and previous 'media coverage', he said.

Explaining the background to the offences, Mr Tolhurst said: "He wasn't seeing as much of his partner as he had been. He had begun to feel alone and socially isolated.

"His naive response to that was to look for adult pornography and that led him and caused him to stray into viewing images of children out of curiosity and naivety."

He said Hancocks, who has resigned from his job of three years as a bus driver, found a 'sense of community' in chatrooms where he was able to talk to people about 'a shared fantasy'.

However, the barrister said Hancocks now had a 'better understanding of the impact of his offending' and, as a consequence, 'is profoundly embarrassed and deeply ashamed of his actions'.

Judge James Burbidge QC, sentencing, told Hancocks: "All of these images are of the utmost despicable kind and it is beyond the comprehension of right-thinking members of society why you would do it."

He added: "The children in all of the images are victims. Anyone who seeks to view such images connives in the harm it creates."

The judge told Hancocks, now of Ryefields Road, Stoke Prior, he had 'resigned' as a bus driver 'before you were sacked'. Judge Burbidge said a sex offender treatment programme was 'a proper alternative to custody' and that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. The probation service had assessed Hancocks as being at 'low risk of reoffending'.

A 36 month community order was imposed to include 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days, the Maps for Change workbook and 200 hours of unpaid work.

The judge did not impose a curfew, telling Hancocks: "It might just put you back in front of a computer for longer."

A five year sexual harm prevention order will restrict his use of the internet and his contact with children.

He must sign the sex offender register for five years and notify police of any change of address or other personal circumstances.