A former Trowbridge man who told police a 'spurious' story about how he came to have images of children being raped on his computer has been jailed for 20 months.

Aaron Rayner, 27, claimed he had accidentally opened the pictures and movies when they were sent to him with adult pornography.

And Rayner said he removed them from the machine only for a virus to 'recreate' them shortly before the police raided his Trowbridge home.

But after his defence team took expert advice he changed his plea to admit downloading the vile material.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that police investigating people using peer to peer file sharing arrested him in April 2012.

When they searched his machine they found 2,418 pictures and movies of child abuse, some stored in files and folders with passwords including one labelled 'paedo'.

He also hand thousands of cartoon images of children being abused as well as others of adults with animals.

When he was questioned he came up with the story about how the material came to be on his machine and denied downloading it.

But Rayner, now of Mackenders Close, Eccles, Aylesford, Kent, pleaded guilty to making and possessing indecent images of children as well as prohibited images and extreme pornography.

Marcus Davey, defending, said his client suffered from autistic spectrum order and dyspraxia, which may explain why he was slow to accept responsibility.

He said it was two years since his arrest and he had been depressed with the matters hanging over him for so long.

Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "The least said about the nature of the material the better.

"What is of greater importance in this case is the fact that you went on with this activity over a significant period of time and it was prolonged and it went on until your computer was seized by the police.

"Some might say your attitude towards the police on these allegations show a degree of arrogance.

"What is clear to me is you wanted to look at images of children being raped and you paid for and stored material that showed bestiality.

"Plainly you hoped to evade detection, investigation and prosecution."