A REPEAT sex offender from Minehead has been sent to prison for nearly two years.

Edward Brooks, 52, of Hayfield Road, was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court on April 1.

Brooks was given a total of 23 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images of a child.

He was found not guilty on one charge of possessing an indecent photograph of a child.

Brooks was given a four-month consecutive sentence and four months concurrent for the charges.

But due to previously being given a suspended sentence, he received a total of 23 months in prison.

He was also ordered to pay £140 victim surcharge, the images were forfeited and destroyed and his computer was seized.

He will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Two other charges, one for making indecent photography of a child, and one for possessing extreme pornographic image portraying an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal, are to lay on his file.

After the sentencing, an NSPCC spokesperson said: “Behind Edward Brooks’ sickening collection of images and videos are countless children that will have suffered harrowing, traumatic and life changing abuse.

“He has rightly been sent to prison from where he must be made to undertake an intensive programme of rehabilitation.

“The scale of Brooks’ offending also highlights how big this twisted industry has become and the necessity for the authorities and the tech companies to work in unison to disrupt and ultimately destroy the networks that make and share this terrible content.”