A MARRIED man says he is “disgusted” with himself after downloading thousands of “horrendous” pornographic images of children.

Andrew Lumber admitted 18 counts of downloading indecent images of children when he appeared before magistrates in Worcester.

Lumber, aged 29, of Colford Close, Droitwich, downloaded the images between September 4 and September 18 last year.

Matt Dodson, prosecuting, said police carried out a search warrant and examined a computer tower and a number of hard drives.

They found 467 level one images (the most 'mild'), 262 level two images, 781 level three images, 562 level four images and 86 level five images - the sickest kind (2,158 images in total).

They also discovered 17 video clips of children at level one, 14 at level two, 10 at level four and one at level five. The children in the images ranged between the ages of six months and 16 years. Mr Dodson said some of the images had been deleted but police were still able to recover 8,000 of them from a folder marked “C Gate”.

He added: “He considered himself to be addicted but would feel disgusted with himself and delete the images. He said his urge to do this sort of thing would be every six months or so.

“He would search the internet and pay for the images via credit card. He described the content of the images he deleted as being pretty horrendous. He would find the images he liked and seek gratification.

“He said he was grateful for his arrest and would now seek help for his problem.”

On one website he had to post indecent images of children to gain access to the site.

In a police interview he said he was interested in images of females aged 12 or over and said he often did not know what images he would receive from the websites.

Mark Sheward, defending, said Lumber had not forwarded the images on to anyone else and the images he had wanted to see were the milder level one and level two images but that, as a product of his search for them, he came across more graphic images.

Mr Sheward said he was now in touch with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity, as he tried to seek help for his addiction.

He said: “He tried to resist his urges but his moral boundaries would be worn down. He would then be in a position of going to his computer and looking for such images.

"After looking at them he would be disgusted with himself and he would go back to leading a proper life.

“He is a married man and was married three years before his arrest. His wife is standing by him.

“He says that’s one of the things that has come from this dreadful matter is that his marriage is much stronger than it was.”

Magistrates declined jurisdiction for the case and it was committed to Worcester Crown Court for sentence on January 8 next year.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.

• Your Worcester News was the only member of the media at this hearing.