A Sudbury gardener who took “up-skirt” pictures of young girls in shops and in the street has been jailed for 18 months.

Sentencing 27-year-old Patrick Moriarty, Judge Rupert Overbury said he had “a serious entrenched and disturbing interest” in young female children.

“You went out and about taking the opportunity to take what are plainly indecent photographs of young children. These up-skirt pictures are from my reading of national news becoming more prevalent offences particularly in public places,” said the judge.

He said in addition to taking these pictures Moriarty had made “a concerted effort” over a number of years to download child pornography which he had stored for his own sexual gratification.

Judge Overbury said Moriarty was clearly ashamed of what he had done but his offending was so serious only an immediate custodial sentence could be passed.

Moriarty, now of Hartest, near Bury St Edmunds, admitted outraging public decency, three offences of making indecent images of children and one offence of possessing extreme pornographic images.

In addition to being jailed, Moriarty was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.

Peter Gair, prosecuting, said the offences came to light as a result of a police inquiry into a Russian website which featured uploaded “up-skirt” photographs of female children taken in supermarkets and parks in this country.

Inquiries led officers to arrest Moriarty at an address in Market Hill, Sudbury, on December 27 last year.

Moriarty admitted he’d been uploading pictures he had taken of children in the street onto a Russian website and that he had a sexual interest in girls under 12.

When police experts examined computer equipment belonging to Moriarty they found more than 6,000 indecent images of children including 480 in the most serious level A category, 501 level B images and 5,242 images in the lowest level C category.

Catherine Bradshaw, for Moriarty, said her client recognised that the offences crossed the custody threshold.

However, she asked the court to consider suspending the sentence.

She said Moriarty, who has been working as a self- employed gardener, had no previous convictions and had a degree in music technology.

Miss Bradshaw said he was ashamed of what he had done and had sought help for his behaviour since his arrest.