A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed after hiding two tablets and a mobile phone from police officers investigating his internet use.

Officers searching Michael Kennerley’s house found two tablets hidden under a wardrobe before a raid on his workplace unearthed a phone being kept in a locker.

All the devices were found to contain indecent images of children performing sexual acts.

At Bolton Crown Court, Judge Tom Gilbart, said Kennerley, 34, of Hope Carr Road, Leigh, was given a sexual harm prevention order in May 2019 after being convicted of possessing extreme sexual images of children.

The order put specific controls on his use of devices which could access the internet.

Judge Gilbart said officers acting on intelligence searched Kennerley’s home, where they found a number of phones and two tablets.

Analysis of the tablets revealed 258 Category A images, 501 less serious images and 64 prohibited images. Some featured children as young as two-years-old with the majority featuring children aged between four and 13.

Kennerley had told officers he was sexually attracted to girls aged nine and ten.

“They were horrifying images of innocent children,” said Judge Gilbart, who added that they had been downloaded between June 2015 and June 2020.

Officers raided Kennerley’s workplace in November 2020 and found he had been concealing a mobile phone capable of accessing the internet in a locker.

Kennerley told officers he had owned the phone before the order was imposed but he had not disclosed it.

At a previous hearing Kennerley admitted to three counts of making indecent photographs, possessing prohibited images of children and two breaches of a sexual harm prevention order

Judge Gilbart handed Kennerley a 17-month prison sentence and he must sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.