A paedophile admitted "thoughts about children creep into my head" after a huge stash of indecent images of children were found on his computer.
Alan Clutterbuck, from Warrington, was caught with 34,569 indecent images of children on his computer, years after serving a prison sentence for a similar offence.
The 38-year-old appeared at Liverpool Crown Court and pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing such images.
Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, said: "Police raided his Orford home in 2017 and found among a number of computers, hard drives and laptops, and a PlayStation 3 hard drive containing 61 images of abused children.
"There were 10 category A pictures of two-year-olds, 14 category B pictures of babies aged between six and 12 months and 37 category C images of two to four-year-olds.
"In an interview with police, he said: ‘I do not walk down the street looking at children, but sometimes I will be at home and the thoughts about children creep back into my head'.
"Since his release from prison he has been tempted to look at indecent images of children but he has never acted upon it.
"Despite not finding any images on the tablet, police did find ‘vigorous’ search terms and a username for a dark web website."
Clutterbuck, of Greenings Court, has previously served a 30-month sentence in 2009 for 21 sexual offences relating to the distribution and possession of indecent images of children.
Gareth Roberts, defending, said: “There is no doubt that this man has a predisposition to a sexual interest in children.
“He is an intelligent man who at 16 started to become interested in adult pornography which then developed into children.
“For a long period of his life it was an obsession and he would seek out these images.
“He was convicted in 2009 and in his own words he said he was "glad" because this marked an end to that part of his life.
“He understands that this is child abuse and this brings him great shame.”
The court heard that since his release from prison, Clutterbuck’s problem is "still ongoing" and that he visited the websites to ‘go back to the community he was previously frequenting’.
Judge Gary Woodhall said: “Your own admissions to the police are concerning.
“The website searches found on your tablet display your deviant interests. You entered a chatroom in 2017 with the title relating to indecent images of children.
“Privacy software on your laptop meant police were not able to recover all of the files.
“Your frank, unhealthy interest in young children is ongoing.
“Due to the complicated age of the offences and the previous sentence you served, I have to consider whether the sentence you received from the judge in 2009 would have changed if he knew about the additional 61 images.
“A community order is the best way to get rehabilitation for you and to protect the public from you.”
Judge Woodhall handed Clutterbuck a three-year community order.
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He was told to carry out 120 hours unpaid work, a 20-day rehabilitation activity and to complete a treatment programme with Horizon.
He is under a sexual harm and prevention order for life.
