A Saundersfoot pensioner downloaded “hours” of child sex abuse including footage of an eight year old girl being raped, a judge heard today.

Michael Gouldingay, aged 76, entered internet search terms such as “man having sex with a three year old girl” to find the material.

Gouldingay, of Scandinavia Heights, admitted possessing indecent images of children in all three categories of seriousness, 27 in the most serious Category A, 22 in B and 60 in C.

But, said Helen Randall, prosecuting at Swansea crown court, one of the “images” was in fact a two hour film featuring adults having sex with children.

Police raided his home on June 8 last year and took away computers and memory sticks.

After his arrest Gouldingay told police he was embarrassed and said, “If this goes to court I will be finished.”

His barrister, Paul Hobson, said a pre-sentence report by a probation officer “does not help him very much” because of his “rigidity of thinking.”

Mr Hobson said Gouldingay had not only lost his good character and his standing within the local community but had thrown it away.

He said there had been such a reaction to his offending “from certain elements that the authorities have become concerned and alarms have been fitted to his accommodation.”

The judge, Mr Recorder Timothy Petts, said Gouldingay did not seem to appreciate that child abuse would not happen on the scale that it did if people like him did not search for it on the internet.

“It is horrendous to think what happens to these children to provide you with sexual gratification. You have failed to grasp the seriousness of your offending,” he added.

There was no doubt that Gouldingay had known what he was doing because of the “disgusting” search terms he had used. And he had taken the trouble to transfer illegal material onto memory sticks.

Mr Recorder Petts said jailing Gouldingay for a relatively short period would only result in him returning to society an unchanged man.

He said he noted that a probation officer was not sure that Gouldingay would engage in rehabilitation but he would give him a chance anyway.

Gouldingay was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 10 days of a rehabilitation activity.

He was also made the subject of a five year sexual harm prevention order restricting his access to children and to the internet, and must register with the police as a sex offender.