SHAMED former Wycombe district councillor Bob Bate has been jailed today for three years after confessing to possessing thousands of pornographic images of children and animals.

His Honour Judge Simon Davis, sitting at Amersham Law Courts, today described the images as “graphic, sordid and damaging”.

He told Bate, 62: “These are the worst images I have ever seen. I am sorry, I have never said that before. Both at the bar and the bench I have had the misfortune to be involved in this work.

“I have never seen images as horrible, moving and dreadful as these.”

On May 15 at Aylesbury Crown Court Bate pleaded guilty to 27 charges relating to the possession and distribution of thousands of these images.

The court was told the images included pictures of children aged from six months to 16 years old.

Bate was originally arrested after a tip-off to police from the Bucks Free Press following a complaint from a member of the public to the newspaper.

Today, the judge said: “It’s hard, if not impossible to fathom what possesses a man to have that material and do what you did with it and to intend to do what you did with it.

“You brought shame and extreme sadness to your wife and your only son.”

He added the fact the images had been organised into folders on his computer was an “aggravating factor”.

Defence counsel Robert Spencer-Bernard today told the judge as mitigation: “The shame that he (Bate) suffers and that he has suffered and the humiliation you can imagine – being elected one day and arrested a few days later.

“That and the consequent publicity which followed was very distressing for all who knew him.”

He added the fact that this had been hanging over Bate for 13 months had weighed heavily upon him.

He added: “He (Bate) has hitherto not just of good character but positively exemplary character.

“He has been supported by his wife and it has been a long time healing. For very understandable reasons she’s chosen not to be here today.

“But they are reconciled to the extent that as and when they are able to live together he will be able to do so.”

The fact that he confessed immediately after being arrested and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity helped to lessen his sentence.

The former Hazlemere Parish Council chairman, a Tory, who was living in Dudley after his arrest, admitted to 17 counts of making indecent photos of children last month.

He confessed to four counts of possessing extreme pornography involving animals and four counts of distributing indecent images of children.

He also issued a guilty plea to one count of possessing to show or distribute indecent photographs of children, and a further count of encouraging the commission of an offence.