A PAEDOPHILE on early release from prison is back behind bars after being caught using his Twitter account to upload indecent images of children.

Christian Derrick had been freed at the halfway point of a two year sentence for distributing the filth when he returned to his old ways.

Using an iPad and iPhone which he was not supposed to have under the terms of his licence, the 36-year old accumulated nearly 1,300 indecent images of children.

And the pervert, who had kept the devices in storage while he was behind bars, also had numerous vile cartoons of children as well as images of bestiality.

Derrick, who is now starting another two-year jail term, told detectives his particular interest was children aged 12 months to 11 years.

Among the collection, which he started compiling soon after his release from custody, was a particularly unpleasant image of an 18 month old child being abused.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how Derrick, who was released from prison in January, was arrested again last August.

“On the 15th of that month the police received information from a journalist at the Sunday Mirror of a person using a Twitter account to upload images of children,” she said.

“He gave the account of Mr Derrick residing at an address in Swindon and checks found Mr Derrick had appeared in court on January 26, 2012, for a number of offences.

“He was released from prison on January 25, 2013, and was on licence until January 24, 2014. Mr Derrick was arrested and his room searched.

“He disclosed to police he had an iPad and two phones. The iPad was on top of the wardrobe as he knew possession of such was in breach of his licence.”

Miss Marlow said he had been downloading the pictures “essentially since the time of his release to the time of his further arrest”.

He told police he had opened the Twitter account four days before his arrest because he was bored.

He said he had seen images on sites like Netlog, Yahoo, Kik and photo-sharing site Dropbox and confirmed he had also uploaded some himself.

When his phone and tablet were examined by the police he was found to have 1,294 indecent images of children with 278 in the worst two categories.

He also had 38 images of people and animals engaging in sexual activity and 24 vile cartoons of children.

Derrick, of Poulton Street, Gorse Hill, pleaded guilty to nine counts of making and one of possessing indecent images of children and having extreme pornography and prohibited images.

He was recalled to serve the rest of the earlier prison term following his arrest in August and has been remanded in custody since January.

Alex Daymond, defending, said: “He is clearly a man who understands there is a problem there.”

Judge Douglas Field said: “Some of these images are really disgusting... ” before jailing Derrick for two years; putting him on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years; and making him subject to a sexual offences prevention order also for 10 years.