Loner Alan Walton was convicted in 2017 after police discovered a 170-page “paedophile manual” on his phone and 1,115 child abuse images.

Walton was given a suspended jail term and a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

But the 35-year-old had not changed his ways when police officers attended his home address on January 28.

Walton appeared at Teesside Crown Court on Friday via video link from HMP Durham for sentencing.

Prosecutor Paul Newombe told how the registered sex offender had downloaded illegal still and moving images of children between October 2018 and January this year.

The child abuse images included 293 images, including 14 videos, under category A – the most severe category in law – 158 in category B and 417 in category C.

The sickening material was described as a “wide range of images” including the rape of children.

Some of the images contained a girl aged between one and two-year-old.

Walton, of Stephen Street, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children, breach of sexual harm prevention order and being in breach of a suspended sentence.

The court heard how Walton failure to comply with notification requirements by using seven aliases online – without disclosing them to the police.

He accessed a number of sites on the “dark web” using names which were described as variations on ‘Alan’.

Police attended Walton’s home address on January 28 after receiving information that indecent images of children had been accessed at the address.

The force recovered a Samsung mobile phone, which was used to access the dark web, and a USB stick which illegal images had been downloaded on.

Recorder Christopher Smith told Walton how downloading sickening child abuse images and videos increases the demand for the material causing more children to be harmed.

He sentenced Walton to two and a half years in prison.

Walton was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.