A PERVERT who downloaded child porn in community colleges and libraries was today behind bars.

Ian Hobley was caught with more than 24,500 depraved images on his home computer and discs by police.

The 40-year-old, who claimed he got some of the discs on internet auction site eBay, was yesterday jailed for 16 months at Liverpool crown court.

He admitted 13 offences of possessing and making indecent images. Hobley, of Alderely Road, Wallasey, was jailed in April 2003 for similar offences involving more than 40,000 images.

The court was told he sought professional help when he was released.

But he slipped back into his old ways in 2006, accessing the internet at the New Brighton community college and Wallasey library.

He downloaded the sick images onto a memory stick which he then put onto his own computer.

Damian Webb, prosecuting, told the court the images ranged from level one erotic poses to the most horrific level five pictures. The majority were at the lower end of the scale with only 37 of the 24,500 levels four and five.

When his computer and discs were seized by police Hobley said he got some of the discs from eBay. But he was also found to be a member of an online club where members swapped sick photos.

In his interview he fully admitted what he had done and pleaded guilty when the case first came to court.

David Flood, defending, told the court since his first conviction dad-of-three Hobley was shunned by his family, his marriage broke down and he lost his job as a computer engineer.

And that although he attended self- help meetings at Manchester-based Sexaholics Anonymous he began to look at the images again in times of stress.

Judge Gerald Clifton ordered Hobley to sign the Sex Offenders Register for another 10 years and banned him indefinitely from working with children.

Last April Hobley secured a placement with Cater Walsh court transcribers at the Liverpool crown court complex. No checks were carried out into his background and he sat in the restricted youth court listening to evidence of an indecent assault suffered by a 14-year-old girl.

When his past was uncovered Hobley was given a sexual offences prevention order and the blunder was investigated.

An eBay spokeswoman said today: "We were very pleased to hear that Ian Hobley has been sentenced to 16 months in prison.

"We were deeply concerned to learn that this man may have bought wholly inappropriate material on eBay and we would like to reassure the public that this is most certainly an isolated incident."

A spokeswoman for Child Exploitation and Online Protection said: "We know that those who possess and distribute images of child abuse will seek to share them in a variety of environments, both commercial and non-commercial.

"CEOP works very closely with industry partners to monitor activity in both online and offline forums and bring those who exploit children in this way to justice."