A sex offender from Wolverhampton found in possession of thousands of indecent images of children has been jailed.

Richard Haswell was found guilty of possession of indecent images, possession of extreme pornography, six counts of making indecent images and two counts of arranging or facilitating a child sex offence.

Haswell was caught following an extensive investigation by our Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team (OCSET), which uncovered the appalling catalogue of offences he committed.

He had more than 50,000 images, including indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

Some of the images he had were of the most serious nature, including children as young as six months old.

The investigation also found Haswell, 62, was communicating with another sex offender in the Philippines, orchestrating the live sexual abuse of children for custom videos.

Haswell was paying money to the offender in the Philippines and detailing the kind of abuse to be committed in the video.

When officers arrived at Haswell’s door in July last year, he admitted having devices with indecent images on.

Despite these admissions, he tried to tell officers in interview that he was being pestered into sending money to the abuser in the Philippines, but could not explain why he did not block them.

The sheer volume of content downloaded by Haswell, as well as his own admissions, meant a strong case could be built against him.

Now, Haswell has been sentenced to six years in jail, and will spend an extra three-years on licence.

He was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

We take sex offences against children extremely seriously and our teams are committed to identifying and catching offenders wherever and whenever we receive information.

If you think a child you know is at risk of harm, or if someone you know is involved in this type of offending, visit Child sexual exploitation | West Midlands Police