A MAN has been jailed after being caught downloading child abuse images less than two years after being spared jail for the same offence.

Barry man Owen Roberts was given a supervision order in July 2014 after pleading guilty to 16 charges relating to the possession of images and videos of child abuse.

In January of this year police attended his home on Woodlands Road and found 26-year-old Roberts asleep. When officers explained that they were there to carry out a search warrant, Roberts confessed that he had once again been looking at indecent images and pointed officers towards a 64GB USB stick.

Newport Crown Court heard how he informed the officers he had been looking at images of children and said: "I don't know why I look at them, I don't know why I do it."

Two laptops and the USB stick were seized with officers later finding that one of the computers had a faulty hard drive but the other one had been used to download files which had since been deleted.

Prosecutor Andrew Kendall told the court that although the files could no longer be viewed it was clear from their names that they had contained child abuse.

The USB stick was found to hold 577 images of children as young as six being abused - of which 163 were categorised as the worst - and 38 movies featuring the abuse of children as young as eight - of which all but one were in the worst category.

Adam Sharpe, defending. told the court that although his client had been keen to begin a sex offender prevention course he had been ordered to attend, he was yet to start it due to a lack of availability at the time of the second offence.

Mr Sharpe added that since the first offence Roberts had lost his job as a carpet fitter and had become a very secluded person.

"He lost contact with all his friends and all contact with family members apart from his mother," said Mr Sharpe. "He spends all his time next to his computer and he is ashamed to say that the temptation became too much."

He added that custody will be particularly difficult for the "shy and timid young man".

Roberts pleaded guilty to charges of possession of indecent images and distribution of indecent images - the latter being the result of using file sharing software.

Judge Daniel Williams sentenced Roberts to 16 months in jail. He said: "You must understand that behind each of these images is a real child and what is behind each image is a real sexual offence being committed against a young child."