A convicted paedophile was found with more than 500 videos and indecent images of children on a phone which he had hidden in a toolbox, a court heard.

Sebastian Rampley, 31, had his home searched by police and among items seized was a Samsung phone with 334 indecent images of children and 170 videos, Norwich Crown Court heard,

Rampley, of Cromer Road, Holt, also had recorded live streaming footage of young boys involved in sex acts and had also visited chat rooms, where he had engaged in sexual conversations with young males, the court was told.

Ian James, prosecuting, said that police searched the home of Rampley, a registered sex offender, after becoming aware that indecent images of children were being uploaded from the address.

Mr James said the offences put Rampley in breach of a 10-month suspended sentence which he was given in 2016 for possession of indecent images.

Rampley admitted possession of indecent images and attempting to cause a male under 16 to engage in sexual activity and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

He also admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order and a suspended sentence order,

Jailing him for 58 months and placing him on the sex offenders' register for life, Judge Stephen Holt said that he represented a high risk of re-offending.

'You accept you have a serious problem which has to be treated otherwise you are going to receive longer and longer sentences.'

Judge Holt said a worrying aspect of his offending was that having been sentenced for possession of indecent images in 2016, he had gone on to offend again and his offending had escalated.

However he said Rampley deserved credit for his guilty plea and said: 'Once police had started to search you told them they could find your phone in a toolbox.'

Darren Snow, for Rampley, said that he wanted to get help: 'He realises he has a serious problem. He wants to embrace help.'

He said his offending was akin to an addiction and said the internet made it easy for him to offend in this way: 'It makes it all too easy to be drawn into this sort of offending.'

He said that Rampley was an isolated person and after his last conviction had lost his job and was victimised.

Mr Snow said: 'He wants to draw a line and rebuild his life.'