A PAEDOPHILE who looked at more than 16,800 snaps of abused youngsters failed to tell his employer he landed in court.

Gwyn Jones obtained a reference from his Blenheim Palace employers after confessing he combed the internet for indecent images.

But the 51-year-old failed to disclose his conviction to his boss despite handing the reference to Judge Ian Pringle QC ahead of his sentencing on Thursday.

The judge told Oxford Crown Court Jones was ‘unlikely’ to keep his job before handing him a 10-month sentence, suspended for two years.

Police stormed Jones’ home on May 9, 2014, seizing his Toshiba laptop which contained four indecent images.

Officers burst into his home in Glyme Close, Woodstock, again in July 2016, seizing a HP laptop with further snaps, at least 142 videos, and 396 extreme pornographic images featuring animals.

Defence barrister Sonal Dashani said Jones, who had no previous convictions and suffers with depression, claimed he did not gain sexual gratification from gazing at the illegal material.

The ‘broken’ man pursued his passion of diorama modeller while working at the Woodstock palace, she said.

Jones was also handed a sexual harm prevention order banning him from unsupervised contact with under-16s, made subject to a two-year supervision order, a 15-day activity requirement and 120-hours unpaid work. He admitted four counts of making indecent photographs of children and two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images between May 2014 and July 2016.