A paedophile who was caught with nearly one million images and videos of children took pictures of himself committing a sexual assault.

Steven Cooksey, 62, was caught following a warrant at his home in St Ives where a number of electronic devices were seized.

Officers discovered images of Cooksey inappropriately touching a child and several other images of the child in underwear on a laptop.

Specialist software established the camera used to take the images matched one seized from Cooksey’s home.

Further analysis revealed 964,258 images or videos that were found to be indecent or were “indicative” of a sexual interest in children. Of these, 1,317 were category A – the most severe.

Cooksey admitted assaulting a girl under 13 by touching, three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child, possession of a prohibited image of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image and taking an indecent photograph of a child.

Yesterday January 25) at Peterborough Crown Court he was jailed for three-and-a-half years. He was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

DC Caroline Murphy said: “Cooksey’s behaviour was abhorrent. He preyed on this defenceless child purely for his own gratification.

“The high number of images and videos demonstrated the extent and persistent nature of his offending.

“Child protection is one of our priorities and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect children and bring people who abuse them before the courts.”

If you’re concerned someone could be posing a risk to a child, you can apply for disclosure information through Sarah’s Law.