A paedophile caught with hundreds of indecent images of children after a sexually explicit letter for him was sent to his neighbour by mistake has been jailed for two years.
John Howard Baker, of Addiscombe, admitted 12 counts of making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children at Croydon Crown Court on Monday.
The 66-year-old had evaded detection by not sending images online but came to the attention of police after a neighbour mistakenly received a letter, addressed to Baker, detailing sexual acts and containing references to children.
Officers from the Addiscombe Safer Neighbourhood Team investigated and found two other sexual letters had been reported to police in Hampshire in 2011.
Neither mentioned Baker by name but one included his home phone number.
Local officers, after speaking to Croydon's police 'Jigsaw' team, which deals with registered sex offenders, raided Baker's home on July 24.
They arrested him and seized several computers, hard drives, USB sticks, photographs and photographic equipment.
Forensic examination found hundreds of indecent pictures of children on the hard drives and memory sticks.
Baker was charged on October 9 and jailed after pleading guilty this week. He will be placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Detective Sergeant Hayley Stanesby, from Croydon police, said: "This case was solved due to some excellent work by the Addiscombe safer neighbourhood team, working in conjunction with my Jigsaw team that deals with and manages registered sex offenders.
"Baker was not known to us before this case was brought to light and did not use the internet to communicate or send and receive images, which can make it slightly harder to identify and detect what he was doing.
"But thanks to the excellent work of PC Grant Cranshaw of the Addiscombe SNT and DC George Sinclair from my team, a dangerous sex offender has been identified and put behind bars and he will also be subject to all the constraints and checks upon his release under the sex offenders register."
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