A DEEPLY troubling Huntingdon man has been jailed after hundreds of indecent pictures of very young children were found on his computer. Police discovered digital images and prints in Keith Ashcroft s house when they went to his home in Cherry Tree Clos

A "DEEPLY troubling" Huntingdon man has been jailed after hundreds of indecent pictures of very young children were found on his computer.

Police discovered digital images and prints in Keith Ashcroft's house when they went to his home in Cherry Tree Close, Huntingdon, last year.

Prosecutor Mark Hurd told Peterborough Crown Court that Ashcroft had become involved in a dispute with a neighbour on November 11, 2006, that had led to him brandishing a firearm.

When police searched his property, they found A4 printouts in an upstairs wardrobe that depicted sexually-explicit images of children, the court heard.

On Ashcroft's computer, officers found 469 explicit images of children, including 134 level three images and 97 level four images.

Pornographic images featuring children are graded on a scale of one to five, with five being the most serious grading.

Ashcroft, 46, admitted using the internet to find and download the pictures and adding pornographic websites to his browser "favourites".

Jailing Ashcroft for eight months, of which he will serve half, Judge Nicholas Coleman said: "One person's sexual gratification is a child's misery, and potential long-term misery.

"What is deeply disturbing about this case is that the children are so young.

"You have little or no victim empathy and a distinct lack of boundaries when it comes to children. There is something deeply troubling about you.

"A message has to be sent out about this type of behaviour."

Ashcroft, now of Sparrow Close, Huntingdon, was already serving a community order for the firearms offence when he appeared in court last Wednesday.

He was placed on the sex offenders' register and banned from working with children.