Belfast pervert pleads guilty to one of largest child abuse image stashes ever seized in Ireland

Andrew Patton is almost certainly going to jail when he's sentenced next month for his apparent addiction to watching images and videos of kids being raped and sexually assaulted.

Though the total amount seized by the police has not yet been disclosed, it totals more than 16,000 indecent pictures and video files.

The sheer scale of the stash helped cause a delay to the hearing with some of the offences going back five years.

The 55-year-old, from Orby Drive, appeared at Antrim Crown Court where it emerged he had a staggering collection of illegal images.

Just hours after admitting to all the offences put to him, we called at his door but he declined to comment.

In response to questions about why he had so many images and whether he feared going to jail, he just repeatedly said "No" and then closed the door.

In addition to his confession that he had at least 16,275 indecent or prohibited images of children, Patton also admitted to having at least 70 sickening videos across each of the categories of indecent images.

Appearing at court by video link alongside his solicitor David Jones, Patton entered guilty pleas to all of the 44 charges against him.

In total Patton confessed his guilt to 34 counts of possessing indecent images, seven of having prohibited images and three of having extreme pornography, all committed between December 28, 2015 and February 18, 2016.

None of the facts surrounding the charges was opened in court during the brief arraignment proceedings on Wednesday, but the particulars of the offences reveal that Patton had 1,197 images and 44 videos in the most serious category A, 1,083 images and 17 videos at assessed at category B along with 6,455 category C images and nine videos.

In addition, pervy paedo Patton was caught with 7,540 prohibited images of children and three images which amounted to extreme pornography.

Following Patton's admissions, defence counsel Sean Mullan explained that the pervert was the "carer for his elderly sister, is very keen to have this matter brought to a conclusion as there has been extensive delay".

Freeing Patton on bail, Judge Richard Greene QC adjourned passing sentence until October 15 by which stage a pre-sentence probation report will have been compiled.

Patton was also ordered to sign the police sex offenders register.