Police raided Alan Greaves's home
in Colne, Lancashire in September 2013 where they found the
disturbing images on a digital storage device.
Forensic examination of the abuse
images found almost 700 were of the most serious category, with a
further 872 at the next level.
Burnley Crown Court heard there
were also 17,821 other indecent images with 106 movies.
Laura Barbour, defending, said she
had been instructed the reason Greaves had the images on his computer
was because he was conducting an investigation on the 'Illuminati'.
He believed the group
'disseminates' such material and that is how images ended up on his
computer, the court heard.
She added: 'He told police he has
no interest in children sexually in any way.'
The court was told the defendant,
who has children aged around 30 to two-years-old, was also a
full-time carer for his disabled sister.
Jailing him for 21 months, Judge
Simon Newell said there appeared to be sexually-explicit images of
females aged just 10, or younger, which had assembled over a
three-year period.
'If it was not for people viewing
these images, there would be a chance these children would not be
harmed,' he said.
Alan Greaves was caught with almost 20,000 images of child abuse on his computer and mobile.
