A Royal Navy veteran turned paedophile distributed sick videos of a toddler being sexually abused to an undercover police officer, saying older kids were 'boring'.

Daniel Ballinger, now a plumber, hung his head in the dock and cried at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday as details of the images were revealed, one image involving the abuse of a baby aged 18 to 24 months.

Details of what happened to the child are considered too graphic to print and the defendant's own wife, who was pregnant with his child at the time of the offences, said she was 'shocked and appalled' by what he had done. During the course of their investigations police arrested an innocent man because Ballinger had used another man's internet router during his offending. This was considered another aggravating feature.

The 33-year-old of Homestead, Droitwich admitted two offences of distributing indecent images of children, including category A images (considered the most serious within the guidelines) and an attempt to publish an obscene article between May 17 and May 25 this year.

Jonathan Veasey-Pugh, prosecuting, said Ballinger had distributed three category A images and one category C image while he was working as a plumber in Kidderminster.

Ballinger, who had no previous convictions, was only arrested after an 'innocent man' had first been blamed for the crime because he had given Ballinger the password to his household internet router - the IP address that was later linked to the offences. The innocent man spent time in custody before he was de-arrested. Ballinger was arrested on May 29 this year.

"In interview he gave no comment to all lines of questioning including a question as to whether he had any remorse" said Mr Veasey-Pugh.

The prosecutor laid out how Ballinger communicated with the undercover officer on two platforms - Kik and Snapchat. Two moving images were distributed directly to the officer, one showing a 13-year-old girl being sexually abused and the second a male child aged 18 to 24 months.

Mr Veasey-Pugh said these images were sent to the officer as 'blandishments' to persuade what he thought was another paedophile to send indecent images of his own daughter. He also attempted to publish two images in an open forum used by some 51 users. The group was called 'school girls in stockings'.

Mr Veasey-Pugh said: "He asked (the undercover officer) if he had videos to share. There is a repeated request for material by this defendant. He suggests he prefers toddlers and considers children older than five or six to be boring."

His advocate, Simon Gurney, said Ballinger had served in the Royal Navy, joining at 21 where he had worked as an aircraft technician until he left in 2014. He had worked on humanitarian relief missions.

He said of the defendant's wife: "She is shocked and appalled by what he has done. The impact upon her has been devastating."

Recorder Martin Butterworth, sentencing, said custody must be immediate, jailing him for a total of 22 months and made a sexual harm prevention order which restricts his contact with children.