A KIDDERMINSTER binman who downloaded more than 3,000 pornographic pictures from the internet and was also convicted of indecent assault on a young girl has been jailed for four and a half years.

Judge David Matthews ordered that 50-year-old Frederick Edginton should never work again with children and should be under supervision of the probation service after serving at least half his sentence in prison.

Edginton, of Willowfield Drive, Kidderminster, was convicted after a trial at Hereford Crown Court last month of seven indecent assaults on a girl when she was aged between 10 and 12.

The judge said Edginton had abused her for his own sexual gratification and on one occasion had tied her naked to a bed.

More than 80 per cent of the pornographic images found on Edginton's computer featured young girls. After moving into the well of the court to view the images on a police computer, the judge said it was obvious that Edginton had an unhealthy interest in female youngsters.

Miss Abigail Nixon, prosecuting, said police raided Edginton's home after a tip-off and found a total of 3,103 images downloaded from pornographic websites on the internet.

Edginton had been trawling the net for nearly three years but he claimed he had not subscribed to any porn sites. Sometimes one would "pop up" and he would watch it out of curiosity. He got no stimulus from what he saw.

Roderick Henderson, defending, said Edginton had not been involved in distributing any of the images and only a small number were of the serious type.

He had no previous convictions and had been frank with police.

He had paid no money so did not encourage paedophiles who exploited children in indecent pictures.