A BIRKENHEAD man who distributed child porn to other paedophiles in America has been jailed for two years.

Stephen Palmer collected more than 10,000 indecent images and movies of young boys and shared at least 140 of them with two others in the USA over the internet.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that officers called at his Birkenhead home on June 4 after receiving intelligence about his online activities.

Palmer, 54, who has a previous conviction for indecent exposure, initially claimed his computer had been stolen in a burglary, but later admitted he had thrown it in a nearby pond.

He told officers he had realised what he was doing was disgusting and had got rid of the machine.

Simon Duncan, prosecuting, said that police were able to retrieve the laptop and found thousands of indecent pictures of young boys.

A total of 9,895 photographs and 288 videos were found of all levels of seriousness. Investigators also discovered snippets of online chats with other perverts.

When interviewed, Palmer admitted he was interested in young boys, aged between four and 12 years old. He confessed he found their bodies "beautiful" and said he believed all the boys in the images were willing participants.

"He went on to admit not only making but the distribution of these images. He told police he was not a child molester, but accepted he was a paedophile in the sense he enjoyed looking at images of boys," said Mr Duncan.

Palmer, of Brecon Road, admitted three offences of distributing indecent images and six of making them between March 31, 2009 and June 6 this year.

Judge Bryn Holloway told him deterrent sentence were needed for people who accessed and shared such "filthy material".

Jailing him, he said: "People like you must appreciate if you indulge yourself in looking at this material there are people who are making a very large amount of money out of creating these images, corrupting these young people and perpetuating the distress and trauma that it no doubt causes."

Judge Holloway told him that the creation of such images left children psychologically damaged for many years. "People like you perpetuate their suffering," he said.

He ordered him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for the same length of time.

John Ballam, defending, told how Palmer, who worked as a gardener, was now "disgusted" by his behaviour and felt dirty.

He said Palmer was unaware the police were coming, but had disposed of his computer because he realised what he was doing was wrong.