A paedophile immediately admitted he had been looking child sex images as soon as police knocked on his door.

Riazudin Mahmud deliberately sought out images of children being sexually abused and was tracked down after distributing one of the disgusting images.

When police knocked at the bus driver's Bootle home he immediately made full admissions and said he had been looking “at child porn”.

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However a judge told the dad-of-three that was not an appropriate label, it was actually “child exploitation and abuse”.

Recorder Kate Bex, QC said: "When interviewed you made a point that you believed you were living a fantasy on line but you also accepted that these were real children who had been abused and what you were watching had actually happened to them.

“They were not pseudo images and the abuse they suffered and the consequences from that are accepted by you.”

The 49-year-old defendant, who lost his job when the offences came to light, pleaded guilty to six offences involving possessing and downloading the images; distributing one image and possessing 19 extreme pornographic images, mainly involving dogs and most of them videos.

Chris Taylor, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that a total of 1,450 still photographs and videos were found on Mahmud’s laptop and mobile phone of children being exploited.

The children were aged about seven to nine years old and investigators discovered that he had deliberately sought them out, using such search terms as “Pre-teen” and ‘Young age”.

The images were in all three serious categories of seriousness, but with most in the top group.

Mr Taylor said that each image, some clearly showing distress, involves a child being abused somewhere in the world.

He said: “If it was not for defendants like this there would not be the market.”

Police called at his home in Prior Street, Bootle, on December 14 last year after Merseyside Police received information about an email linked to an account he used.

David Birrell, defending, said that Mahmud has no previous convictions and asked the judge: “I hope you can accept this is a genuinely remorseful defendant.

“He made full and frank admissions to the probation officer, he was remarkably honest, possibly to his detriment. He appeared to admit he had been doing it for several years.”

He said that Mahmud, who he described as a hard working family man, has insight into his behaviour and has voluntarily sought help from the Safer Lives organisation.

Mr Birrell submitted references including one from his ex-wife and said that although Mahmud lost his bus driving job he is now doing warehouse work and works hard to support his three children whom he regularly sees.

Imposing a suspended prison sentence the judge said he had been frank when caught.

She said: “I take the view that is to your credit.

"It reflects the fact that you are fundamentally a law abiding decent member of society.”

The judge said she was impressed that he has voluntarily sought therapy to address his offending behaviour, which he is funding himself.

Recorder Bex sentenced him to ten months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to carry out 40 days rehabilitation activities and sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

She also ordered him to pay £1,200 towards the prosecution costs and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years.