A PAEDOPHILE caught with thousands of indecent images said he isn’t “sexually attracted” to children in real life.

Malcolm Cane, aged 33, of Essex Square, admitted to possessing 3,893 photographs, along with eight "extreme" pornographic images.

Some of the images showed children as young as three months old, Salisbury Crown Court heard today.

In all, 831 category A photographs, the most extreme according to police, 1,180 category B images, and 1,879 category C photographs were found on a hard drive, laptop and iPad belonging to Cane.

Detectives uncovered the hoard of images in collaboration with The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre after Wiltshire Police carried out a warrant at Cane’s home.

“Immediately he said knew why police were there,” Anthony Bailey, prosecuting, said.

The court heard that looking at images of children had become an “obsession” for Cane.

“He said he would delete the images of children then replace them, and he had been doing this for about two years since the death of his grandmother,” Mr Bailey added.

“He is sexually attracted to photos of girls on the internet aged 14 plus but [he said] if he saw a girl in the street he wouldn’t be sexually attracted to her.”

Police found Cane had been using a website forum to share indecent images of children with other paedophiles.

Cane also admitted to looking at extreme pornographic images but denied that he searched for them and would immediately delete them after viewing.

In mitigation Andrew Stone said that Cane had complied with the police and admitted to possessing the images in interview.

“He was haunted by his behaviour and has feelings of loathing and disgust against himself,” Mr Stone added.

In sentencing Recorder Paul Garlick QC that these were “serious offences” with the more than 800 category A images being the worst.

“You used a website for sharing these items and your activity extended for a period of two years.”

Recorder Garlick added that Cane was a man with no previous convictions and gave him credit for his admissions to the charges at an earlier hearing.

Cane was handed a 36-month community order and required to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for five years and pay a victim surcharge.