A married man who led a double life as a paedophile has been jailed for 32 months.

Clive Evans, 52, had a wife, mortgage, two adult sons and a job working offshore, Norwich Crown Court heard yesterday.

But Evans, of The Causeway, Stowbridge, near King's Lynn, had a 'chilling' sexual interest in children, Judge Nicholas Coleman said.

Officers had seized computer equipment and cameras from Evans' home and discovered a stash of more than 6,000 indecent images across two hard drives.

Evans pleaded guilty to a six-count indictment, including possessing indecent still photos and videos of children, images of bestiality and showing indecent images to children online.

Chris Youell, prosecuting, said Evans had amassed his collection of indecent images of children from around the world by communicating with other paedophiles online.

'It appears they were swapped rather like football cards,' he said. 'Someone would offer an image and he would give one back.'

Among the evidence gathered was a 300-page document of conversations on the internet video chat service Skype, which Evans used when he was working offshore.

Mr Youell said Evans spoke to his other half, who knew nothing of his 'double life', as well as people he knew through websites.

'He moved on from intimate conversations with his wife to rather more sinister conversations with someone who went under the title 'doctor',' said Mr Youell. 'They go into some detail about their sexual proclivities.

'They talk about the ages of children they enjoy.'

He said the two men would call each other 'paedophile boyfriend', and Evans' images were accessible on a password-protected website.

Andrew Cogan, mitigating, said Evans was 'disgusted' with himself, had vowed not to reoffend and wished he had alerted the authorities about what was going on.

'His wife is likely to lose everything,' added Mr Cogan. 'She is 32 years old.

'She's not working and they have a very large mortgage.'

But Judge Coleman said Evans was in denial about the risk he presented.

'This case highlights the clearly deeply troubling world inhabited by those with paedophile tendencies,' he said.

He told Evans: 'You are, as the prosecution rightly pointed out, leading a double life.

'On the one hand you have a relationship with your wife and work as an offshore worker, but you have what can only be described as a chilling sexual interest in children.

'The suggestion you were going to alert the authorities is in my judgment utter nonsense.

'There is not a shred of evidence that you had any intention.'

He sentenced Evans to 32 months in prison, ordered that a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) be made and that Evans' laptop was forfeited and destroyed.