THE former manager of the Bradford district pub made famous by the popular TV soap Emmerdale has been jailed for 14 months for possessing “depraved and disgusting” indecent images of children.

James Clabby, who had been the manager of The Woolpack in the picturesque village of Esholt near Bradford, was arrested by police in June this year and when his phone was examined investigators found 271 indecent still images and videos of children.

During a police interview Clabby, 42, of Broadstone Way, Holme Wood, provided a statement in which he admitted possessing the images and videos and added: ”I’m remorseful for my actions and I request help with my pornography addiction.”

Prosecutor Sam Sharp told Bradford Crown Court that there were 93 images and videos in the most serious category.

He said one video showed a sex act being committed against a male baby aged approximately three to 12 months and in another video a male baby could be heard crying.

Clabby, who had no previous convictions also admitted possessing eight prohibited images of children and one extreme pornographic image which related to a video of a male having sex with a dog.

Mr Sharp said the possession offences covered a period between June 2022 and June this year.

The defendant had initially faced further allegations which had not been pursued and his barrister Michael Greenhalgh said Clabby had spent almost two months in custody on remand before getting bail.

Mr Greenhalgh described that remand as “a significant shock to the system” for his client.

He submitted that Clabby had entered early guilty pleas and he urged Recorder Thomas Moran to suspend any prison sentence.

“He is a man who is very unlikely to ever trouble the criminal courts again,” said Mr Greenhalgh.

“He recognises he has done wrong.”

But the judge said the videos and images included “material of the most depraved and disgusting kind” even within the context of Category A images.

Recorder Moran said Clabby’s search history indicated a sexual interest in children and there had also been evidence of “extremely disturbing conversations” with like-minded people.

The judge said the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors by some distance.

“You claim that you were not sexually attracted to children. That’s not true,” said the judge.

He noted that Clabby had lost his job as a result of the offending and had spent two months on remand for other allegations which had been discontinued.

Recorder Moran said Clabby had been assessed as posing “a medium risk” of serious harm to children.

“It seems to me however the most important factor here is that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody,” he added.

“Some of the material is at the most depraved and serious end of the spectrum.”

The judge explained that after a trial Clabby would have been jailed for 21 months but his guilty pleas meant that sentence could be reduced to 14 months.

Clabby will have register as a sex offender with the police for the next 10 years and comply with a sexual harm prevention order for the same period of time.