A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for 12 months after he admitted to downloading more than 570 images and videos of young girls being raped and sexually abused. 

Paul Platten, 39, from Wincanton admitted to three counts of making indecent images of a child.

Platten admitted that he was in possession of 576 images and 15 videos which showed girls aged between five and eight being raped and sexually abused when he appeared at Taunton Crown Court today (July 28). 

Platten was jailed in August 2016 for 12 months after he sent explicit messages to vigilantes posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Defending, Caroline Bolt said Platten suffers from depression and said he was in denial about committing the offences. 

 "At the time of these offences Mr Platten was a non offender" she said. 

"It is not uncommon for people like Mr Platten to do this, it is difficult for people to face up to the fact they have carried out these morally reprehensible actions.

"Mr Platten has difficulty in expressing himself to the probation service after a previous bad experience with them. 

"In my submission, sending Mr Platten for a custodial sentence is not going to help him. 

"He admits that he needs help and he will not receive the help he needs if he is going to be given a custodial sentence."

Before sentencing Platten, Judge David Evans said due to a lack of information from the Crown Prosecution Service the court could not be sure that there were any further aggrevating features that could be considered in sentencing Platten. 

"There has been a extreme failure from the Crown Prosecution Service to provide the information that we needed" he said.

"They had a perfectly reasonable amount of time to do this in preparation for the trial and it wasn't done. 

"I would like an explanation in writing from the area crown officer about this."

Judge Evans sentenced Platten to 12 months in prison and two eight month sentences to run concurrent. 

Platten will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.