A PAEDOPHILE who admitted he had trawled the dark web for the most horrific child abuse films and pictures imaginable is starting a lengthy prison sentence.

Engineer David Cwiklinski, 47, of Windsor Drive, Magor, Monmouthshire, also shared the disturbing images on WhatsApp and Twitter with like-minded sex offenders.

He also confessed to taking indecent pictures while visiting a nudist camp.

Ruth Smith, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court that after he was arrested, the defendant said of the online images: “I have looked at terrible things.

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“Think of the worst things possible and I have seen them. It’s like a drug. I have no limits – from cradle to grave.”

She added how Cwiklinski had been in contact with fellow paedophiles on social media.

Miss Smith said: “They had discussed setting up their own group.”

Cwiklinski had stored thousands of child abuse movies and stills on around a dozen electrical devices and shared more than 500 of them with others.

He had also discussed in chat rooms setting up a secret camera in the changing room of his local swimming pool.

Miss Smith said: “The indecent images are particularly extreme and involve very young children.

“Some are as young as 18 months and they show the victims in extreme distress.”

Cwiklinski pleaded guilty to distributing and making indecent images of children between March 2019 and March 2021.

The defendant’s offences were committed in the Avon and Somerset Police force area and then in Gwent when he moved to Monmouthshire.

He was a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.

James Evans, representing Cwiklinski, admitted: “The images are as bad as you can imagine.”

His barrister added: “His best mitigation is his guilty plea.

“This will have a catastrophic effect on his life. He is a qualified engineer and is an intelligent man.

“One day he was working on a large engineering project for his employers, the next he was in a police cell.

“It will be difficult for him to rebuild a life for himself.

“He was in a high pressure job and was living with both his parents who were unwell.

“The defendant has already been in custody for two months and is full of genuine remorse for what has happened.

“He’s absolutely determined that he will not engage in this type of behaviour again.”

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told the defendant: “You said there were no taboos.

“You pose a high risk of serious harm to children.”

She sentenced him to an extended prison term for the protection of the public.

The defendant was jailed for five years made up of a four-year custodial term and an extended licence period of 12 months.

Cwiklinski will have to register as a sex offender for life and be the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for an indefinite period.