A QUANTITY surveyor in Calne who downloaded indecent images of 18-month-old babies after previously escaping jail after being convicted of the same thing was jailed for 12 months on Monday.

Richard Bridgewater, of Blacklands Lakes Caravan Park, Stockley Lane, was convicted of hoarding a stash of more than 2,000 indecent images of children on his laptop and admitted breaking a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

The 47-year-old was found to have 2,041 images - 172 category A, 157 category B and 1,712 category C - and one category A video in an "inaccessible" part of his laptop when officers seized it on June 29 2015.

Suspicions had been aroused when a routine police visit, relating to his SHPO, showed up an an internet history of only the previous two days and found special software had been uploaded to hide his internet search history.

Bridgewater wept in court as his former drug-addicted wife Alison professed her love for him to Reading Crown Court.

Defending Michael Phillips asked her, "Why have you stuck by him?", to which she replied: "Because I love him. He's my soul mate."

Mr Phillips continued: "There seems to be something apparently wrong with him that is drawing him towards these particular types of images. The purpose of the suspended sentence was to keep him out of trouble and by and large it did.

"He used to be a quantity surveyor and had a pretty good salary of £40,000 but pretty much since his employment has been pretty low-end - working in factories and warehouses - and he and his wife have been scraping by."

The court heard how Bridgewater was found to have pictures of babies and children aged between 18 months and 16 years, together with software designed to clean up his browsing usage - something prohibited by his SHPO.

Prosecuting Lisa Goddard said: "The software was specifically designed to to clean up areas of the computer, including deleting the internet history."

Sentencing Judge John Reddihough said: "Richard Bridgewater in 2013 you were sentenced by a court when you were convicted of 12 other offences involving indecent images of children and you were given a suspended sentence following those convictions.

"It's very disappointing indeed, even having attended the Cyber Space programme in part, that you would continue committing these further offences.

"I hope that while you are serving your sentence or immediately afterwards you will seek appropriate help to try and ensure you will never do this sort of thing again."

Bridgewater was convicted of three counts of making indecent images of a child and one count of possessing indecent images of a child at Reading Magistrates Court on November 9, 2016.

On Friday he admitted breaking a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, put in place at Woolwich Crown Court on June 10, 2013, and was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for the next 10 years.