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A man with "disgusting sexual fantasies" who filmed young girls with a hidden camera pen in Staines has been jailed for nearly five years.

Christian Sanders was caught after sending indecent images of children to a friend, who notified the police.

Guildford Crown Court was told on Tuesday (September 30) that most of the images found on the hard drive of Sanders’ computer were produced in Ottershaw between 2005 and 2011.

Sanders, 36, faced a total of 20 charges, including 10 counts of producing indecent images of children, three counts of distributing indecent images of children, four counts of voyeurism and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.

Prosecutor James Fletcher told the court that those photos included 1,366 images at the least severe level, ranging to nine images at category five – the most serious.

Some of these images were downloaded from the internet and others Sanders had filmed with a hidden "pen-style" camera, without his subjects knowing, Mr Fletcher said.

He said: “Relating to the distribution of images, six images were distributed to another person’s phone via the defendant’s phone to a friend. It was that friend who then contacted the police and that led to a search of the defendant’s premises and the seizure of the defendant’s computer and discovery of a range of images.”

The court heard that the voyeurism charges related to incidents in Staines involving the images he had produced with the pen camera. The prohibited weapons charges related to two CS gas canisters found at Sanders’ home.

On a further charge relating to possession of a cattleprod stun gun, the crown offered no evidence and a not-guilty plea was recorded, as the item is not a prohibited weapon.

At a plea and case management hearing last year, Sanders admitted several of the lesser counts, confessing further charges on December 19 2013. When he was due to stand trial on September 1 this year, he entered guilty pleas to the remainding charges.

Judge Noel Lucas QC read from victim impact statements from two of Sanders’ victims, who were both filmed while under the age 16.

He read: “She was humiliated and disgusted, completely shocked. The whole experience has left her completely devastated, violated and she has lost her trust in people.”

The other girl’s statement spoke of Sanders’ "disgusting and unhealthy sexual fantasies" that "make her skin crawl".

Judge Lucas said: “As well as what he has done, his actions have had a pretty significant effect on the victims.”

Sanders, of Coles Mill Close, Holsworthy, Devon, was sentenced to four years, eight months for each of counts five to 10, all to run concurrently.

For counts one to four, he was given 12 months each, running concurrently with each other and concurrently with the four years, eight months.

For each of counts 11 to 13, Sanders was given eight weeks, for counts 14 to 17 he was given 10 months for each and for counts 18 to 20 he was given six months for each count, all to run concurrently with each other and with the four years and eight months.

A forfeiture and destruction order was made on the pen camera and Sanders’ hard drive.

Sanders was also made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, which prevents him from accessing the internet unmonitored and associating with children and from taking photographs of children.