A PREDATORY man obsessed with child abuse images has been jailed following an investigation led by Hertfordshire Constabulary child protection officer.

Michael Ward, 36, from Station Road, Radlett, was charged with 17 offences of making indecent photographs of children. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight months in prison.

He will serve a further three years extended sentence out of prison but should be re-offend in this time he will be returned to jail. Ward was arrested on December 4, 2002, as part of the Hertfordshire arm of Operation Ore, the nationwide investigation into offenders who illegally view and download indecent images of children from the internet.

The information about Ward, who works as a catering manager, was sourced via a large-scale operation led by the US Postal Inspection Service.

As well as the custodial sentence, Ward was put on the Sex Offender Register for ten years and banned from working with children for life.

As part of the investigation, officers recovered Ward's computer where he had stored hundreds of child abuse images.

As well as the images, officers established that Ward would enter chat rooms and, posing as a television producer, would try to meet with young girls. He travelled across the country seeking out vulnerable children.