A BARRY taekwondo teacher has been jailed for possessing indecent images of children.

Ronald Thomas, 65, of Court Road pleading guilty to possessing 64 images which were downloaded over a two year period.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Thomas was found to be in possession of still and moving images of child abuse, some of which were of children as young as two.

On March 7, 2016, police issued a warrant to search Thomas’ house and found the images on his Toshiba laptop in an upstairs room.

They included 15 images of the most serious category A, 22 of category B and 27 of category C.

The court also heard that Thomas, who ran taekwondo classes in the town, has no previous convictions and that there is no evidence of improper conduct on his part during his classes.

In mitigation, defence counsel Timothy Hartland said that Mr Thomas had shown “clear remorse” and that he is motivated to address his issues.

Mr Hartland also pointed out that Thomas had pleaded guilty at the first reasonable opportunity, had co-operated with the police and had been "honest and frank" without trying to "minimise" his crimes.

Mr Hartland also went on to say that this had already had a "catastrophic" impact on Thomas’ marriage and reputation.

In sentencing, Recorder Catherine Brown recognised Thomas’ lack of previous convictions and his expression of remorse and co-operation with the police.

But she said: "The public expects significant punishment for this type of crime."

She highlighted the nature of the images, the number of victims, their age and the length of time that offending took place as aggravating factors.

Mr Thomas will be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years and his laptop has been forfeited. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison.