A PERSISTENT paedophile who had a photographic studio in Ilkley has been jailed again.

Robin Doherty was found to be storing pictures of men having sex with children as young as four, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Doherty, 53, was imprisoned for two years and eight months after the police broke into his then address in Crosley Wood Road, Bingley, on May 8 last year and seized hundreds of indecent images.

Prosecutor Clare Walsh said he had pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent photographs and a count of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

Mrs Walsh said that police acting on information forced their way into Doherty’s home and took away computers and a memory stick. When he turned up, the officers confiscated his phone and that too contained images of child abuse.

In all, there were 69 Category A images, 51 at Category B and 1,178 at Category C.

The hoard included still and moving images of children aged between four and 16.

Doherty, of Parkwood Court, Keighley, was in breach of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed at Leeds Crown Court when he was jailed for five years in March 2010 for 18 offences of making, possessing and distributing indecent images.

At that time, he had a photographic studio in Brook Street, Ilkley, and was paid to take indecent pictures of teenage girls.

He negotiated with children as young as 13 to have sex with him on camera for cash.

A 16-year-old girl went to Doherty’s studio where she started with fashion shots and ended with naked shots. She was paid £300.

At a second session, Doherty photographed the girl in indecent poses.

After this session, he contacted the teenager’s sister, who was 14 at the time, and her friend, who was 13.

Doherty offered £1,000 to each girl to have sex with him, and possibly another man, and for the session to be recorded.

The court heard that one of the girls sent him indecent pictures of herself as she considered the offer.

The session never went ahead and Doherty was caught when one of the girls’ relatives intercepted one of his messages.

Police found thousands of child abuse images on Doherty’s computer that had been downloaded.

Mrs Walsh said that Doherty masked his IP address to avoid being detected in his latest offending.

When he knew he had been caught, he told the police: “How did you find out? I will be going to prison again.”

Doherty’s solicitor advocate, John Bottomley, said his client had been diagnosed with autism by a psychiatrist.

Mr Bottomley said that attending a three-year sex offender treatment programme run by the probation service would better serve the community than locking Doherty up again.

But Judge Jonathan Rose disagreed.

“Any right-thinking person would be disgusted and horrified by your offending: this court is disgusted and horrified,” he said.

During Doherty’s lengthy jail sentence, he had received treatment for his paedophilia but he had continued to offend.

He was storing pictures of men having sex with children as young as four.

Doherty had later complained about the course he received behind bars.

“You didn’t like the Sex Offender Treatment Programme in prison. You thought it was horrible,” Judge Rose told him.

Doherty should have heeded the course and made the decision to stop offending. Instead, he had used various different devices to file share hundreds of indecent images of children, hiding his IP address.

Judge Rose made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order without limit of time and Doherty must sign on the sex offender register indefinitely.