A PAEDOPHILE who spied on children playing on the streets near his house and in a Chapelford playground is behind bars after posting pictures of the youngsters on a Russian porn website.

Warrington Crown Court heard on Friday William Ackers, who previously lived in Chapelford and now lives in London, was caught out thanks to an investigation by Australian police.

Officers found the 43-year-old had posted the photos online in an album entitled 'Candid kids' including images of a nine-year-old girl who had bent over wearing a dress and was showing her upper legs and of a seven-year-old girl in a playground with the comment 'Love the sexy blonde'.

When Cheshire Police swooped in November 2013 they found Ackers had more than 1,000 indecent images on his computer collected between 2006 and 2013.

Matthew Jones, prosecuting, said: "The Candid Kids albums included a picture of a 13-year-old girl with the caption 'Hope you like these pictures of a girl that used to live across the road from me, I would love to see her now. All comments are welcome.'"

Pictures of a 15-year-old girl sat on the London underground who had inadvertently exposed her knickers were also taken by Ackers to 'satisfy his fetish for girls' lingerie'.

The court heard searches on his computer also included 'panties' and 'teasing schoolgirls'.

In a victim impact statement a mum said 'everything changed' when the defendant took the pictures and her daughter was now worried when she saw men in the park.

Ackers, who had previously been of good character, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of possessing and distributing indecent images of children and single counts of possessing extreme pornography and a prohibited Japanese-style cartoon.

John Banasko, defending, said: "A broken man sits before you. A man full of remorse and who was so ashamed of what he had done he contemplated taking his own life and couldn't bring himself to tell his wife fully about the investigation.

"He has taken steps to address his offending behaviour."

Judge Raj Shetty said uploading pictures to the internet had caused an 'enormous amount of upset' to the victims and their parents and said he had considered the effect of other people looking at the images.

Ackers bowed his head as judge Shetty said his punishment would be 'immediate' and sentenced him to 16 months behind bars and a 10 year sexual offence provision order.

Following a harrowing morning of evidence for one family, the victim's mum sobbed 'Thank you so much' as Ackers' sentence was read out.

Speaking outside of court, she added: "It's disgusting and I broke down when I found out.

"It's the worst feeling that any mother could ever possibly go through.

"I used to walk my dog down the street and say 'Hiya' to him and never in a million years would have thought someone could do that.

"It will always be on my mind and I want him to realise what he's put me and my family through.

"I feel sick knowing the pictures he has taken can't be taken down from the website and would warn anyone about outting pictures of their kids on Facebook as you don't know what's out there."