A PERVERT has been jailed indefinitely after having one of the UK's biggest child pornography collections.

Michael Knapinski, from Forest Hill, was jailed at Woolwich Crown Court for having thousands of indecent images and videos of children stored on his computer.

The number of images recovered from his home was so enormous, a computer had to be custom-built for the investigation.

The 57-year-old was given an "indeterminate" sentence but ordered to serve a minimum of four-and-a-half-years in jail.

He admitted 25 counts of making indecent images of children, perverting the course of justice, distributing indecent images of children, distributing indecent movies of children, and incitement to possess and distribute indecent images of children.

It follows an investigation by the Met Police's Child Abuse Investigation Command Team.

Knapinski was arrested on April 22, 2003, when officers searched his home.

They found him sitting in front of his computer performing a sex act while displaying an indecent image of a child on his screen.

During the search, officers found 470,978 images and 2,252 movies, of which 335,647 of the images and 1,410 of the movies were indecent.

The divorced father-of-two was charged on February 22 and pleaded guilty to the various charges on July 14.

The judge said he was a danger to the public, a dangerous offender and was a significant risk.

Detective Constable Jan Northam, from the Major Abuse Investigation Team, said: "We believe this to be the largest collection of indecent images and movies found in possession of one suspect in the UK to date.

"The investigation was time-consuming because of the sheer volume of images and it was also disturbing due to their nature.

"We have stopped the activity of a prolific sex offender."