Police also discovered ‘pseudo-images’, where the faces of children are superimposed onto abuse images. It is believed that one of these images used a photograph of a child known to Carruthers.

The 6,000-plus pictures were found on two storage devices which were part of a haul of 30 found in the bedroom of the house Carruthers shared with his mother and sister. The National Crime Agency (NCA) is yet to investigate 28 of the devices.

An officer from the NCA told the court how some of the files, contained within discs found in a safe in the defendant’s bedroom, were encrypted, and that attempts to secure codes to access them had so far been unsuccessful.

A solicitor for Carruthers said his client had not refused to reveal the codes, rather that he did not know that the files, which were downloaded from a website, were encrypted or he did not know the passwords.

Ards Magistrates Court heard yesterday how the images that have so far been accessed varied in degree of severity from level one up to level five.

Read more http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-man-gary-carruthers-had-170page-manual-on-how-to-abuse-children-31597303.html