A PERVERT found with hundreds of images showing babies as young as three months being raped and tortured has been branded “depraved” by a judge.

Stephen Chowles, 47, was caught with a library of more than 4,000 images and films showing serious or sadistic abuse of children.

His sickening hoard contained images of a three-year old being raped, the oral rape of a three-month old baby and of children who were tied up and in “appalling pain”.

Chowles was jailed for two years after a judge told him his activities had contributed to the misery and suffering of child victims of the international pornography trade.

Chowles, of Torquay, admitted nine counts of making indecent images of children when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court on Friday.

Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, told him: “These offences are of the worst possible sort.

“One involves a male raping a three year old child and another depicts the oral rape of a baby aged approximately three months.