PERVERT Peter Tracey failed to persuade a judge was looking for child abuse websites so he could sabotage them with malware.

Judge Robert Pawson dismissed the claim and described it as poppycock.

The public needed protection from people like him, he suggested.

Tracey, 64, was appearing in the dock at Swindon Crown Court because he was being sentenced for having hundreds of images and movies of beastiality involving adults on his computer.

Alistair Haggerty, prosecuting, told the hearing police seized his computer and found 195 movies and 20 still pictures of people having sex with horses and dogs.

When the search engines were examined police not only found him putting in terms relating to beastiality, but also for child abuse websites.

Mr Haggerty said the defendant had downloaded the complete gallery from one provider as well as getting films from other notorious sites. When he was questioned in January he admitted he had used specialist software which erased the history from his machines.

Tracey, of Welcombe Avenue, Park North, pleaded guilty to possessing extreme pornography.

Judge Pawson told the court that he was concerned about the other search terms which the police had uncovered.

Tony Bignall, defending, said that his client knew people who had been sexually abused and was trying to damage those peddling the material.

"It was his intention to spoil or taint those sites so that those who are responsible for them are effectively not making any gain from those images," he said.

But the judge replied: "That explanation is wholly incredible.”

He added: "The thing that the public need is protection from people like your client."

The court heard Tracey suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had been retired on medical grounds.

Passing sentence the judge said "You were in possession of extreme pornography: adults performing sexual acts with horses or dogs.

"Your offence is aggravated because there is an element of sophistication, specifically file removal software."

He imposed a two-year community order, telling him to complete a sex offenders programme.

Tracey was also put on a three months night time curfew and told to pay £340 costs.

The judge asked if prosecutors had considered imposing a sexual harm prevention order, which can be made at a future hearing and Mr Haggerty said it would be looked into.

The judge added "Don't think your explanation that you were hoping in some way you could pass some form of malware on to a provider of that material provides you justification. It is just poppycock Mr Tracey."