A 'DISTURBED' Padgate paedophile who used to secretly film youngsters and had 2,789 indecent photos of children in his possession has been jailed.

Keir Fleming, of Mullion Grove, appeared at Warrington Crown Court last Friday after pleading guilty to being in possession of indecent photos of children, distributing indecent images, taking videos and voyeurism.

He was also sentenced for fraud by false representation after claiming to be from Apple in an attempt to obtain images from people's iCloud accounts.

Prosecution barrister Frances Wilmott said Fleming, aged 38, carried out the string of offences between 2003 and 2014.

Police carried out a search of his home last June and he was subsequently arrested but answered 'no comment' to most questions when interviewed.

His computer and hard drive was examined before officers found the 'disturbing' range of pictures.

The court heard videos were found after Fleming secretly filmed children and 'zoomed in' on them.

He also filmed women, who had 'no idea' what was taking place, and was in possession of 'extreme' content showing a person having sex with an animal.

Ms Wilmott described how Fleming, who had a 'liking' for selfie images, attempted to hack into private iCloud accounts following an invitation asking users to change their security details.

"He used a fishing technique and sent e-mails purporting to be from Apple," she said.

"He could then access images on their iCloud accounts.

"One woman said there were personal images of her and her boyfriend on her iCloud account."

The court heard around 700 affected accounts were identified.

But the extent of how 'private' the images were was not determined in court.

Defence barrister Michael Davies said his client described himself as a 'loner living in isolation'.

"This increased when he moved from Stockport to Warrington," he added.

"He was working in a senior position but resigned as a result of his arrest."

Recorder Peter Birkett sentenced Fleming to nine months in prison for possessing indecent photos, 12 months for taking two videos, 15 months for distributing images, 12 months for possessing extreme porn, six months for voyeurism and three months for fraud by false representation.

He will serve the sentences concurrently, so is set to remain behind bars for 15 months.

Following the judgement he said: "You must go down."