A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for 17 months after he was caught making inappropriate searches on the dark web.

Michael Tatham, 45, was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday (July 25), for three counts of making an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child and for breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

He was caught between January 1, 2020 and May 6, 2022 with 778 indecent photographs which police found on a laptop and a USB stick.

READ MORE: In the Dock: Man guilty of disclosing a private sexual photograph or film

Tatham had 155 Category A images, 123 Category B images and 500 Category C images.

It was found the laptop also had a web browser capable of accessing the dark web which Tatham had used to make illegal searches.

Judge Kirsty Real said the facts of the case show ‘deliberate attempts’ to breach his existing SHPO which was put in place in 2017 after he was found with more than 1,300 indecent images of children.

He was caught after showing a barmaid from a pub in Theale a horrific video of a young girl being abused.

Read his previous sentencing here: Paedophile who showed child pornography to pub landlady dodges jail

Tatham, of Tippett Rise, Reading, was jailed for 17 months for the Category A images. He received concurrent sentences for the remaining charges and a new SHPO was put in place to last 10 years.