A former medical student who downloaded more than 40,000 indecent images of children has been jailed for two years.

Ipswich Star: Joseph Caddick. Picture: SUFFOLK POLICEJoseph Caddick. Picture: SUFFOLK POLICE (Image: Archant)

Police officers went to speak to Joseph Caddick after receiving a complaint that he had sent a man in Anglesea Road, Ipswich indecent images of children via a WhatsApp message, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

The man found the images distressing and when police officers examined his phone they found 31 indecent images that had been sent to him by Caddick, said Hugh Vass, prosecuting.

When police officers went to Caddick’s first floor flat they could hear things being thrown out of a window into a car park and when the went in they found he was growing cannabis in a tent.

Officers seized computer equipment and when it was analysed it was found to have 5,633 indecent images and movies in the most serious level A category, 11,212 level B images and movies and 31,363 images and movies at level C, which is the least serious category.

Caddick, 36, of Park Road, Ipswich, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children, distributing indecent images of children, possession of cannabis and producing cannabis.

The court heard that Caddick was given a suspended prison sentence for offences relating to child porn in 2008.

In addition to being jailed for two years on Friday, Caddick was given a ten year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

Sentencing him, Judge David Goodin said Caddick had been given a suspended prison in 2008 for similar offences and should have used that opportunity to address his interest in child porn.

Folashade Abiodun, for Caddick, said her client, who is a former medical student used to be a confident person but now suffered from anxiety and panic attacks.

She said he had committed the child porn offences out of “sheer stupidity” after being given a suspended sentence for similar offences nearly a decade ago.

She accepted her client had tried to dispose of items out of a window when police went to his flat and hadn’t provided passwords for computer equipment seized from his home.