Thomas Poole jailed for 22 years for tying up six-month-old baby girl and raping her

Thomas Poole pleaded guilty to 14 counts of oral and anal rape of the little girl who was between six and 18 months old at the time

Thomas Poole from Ash in Surrey was sentenced to 22 years in prison (Surrey Police)

A rapist has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after he tied up a six-month-old girl and assaulted her.

Thomas Poole was convicted of 14 counts of oral and anal rape of a baby girl between six and 18 months old after pleading guilty.

Sentencing him, Judge Christopher Critchlow said he had considered sentencing him to life behind bars because of the threat he posed to young children.

Calling Poole“depraved” and a “danger to society” he said: “You took images, hundreds of photographs and over 109 moving images of other girls were found in your possession.

“You distributed the indecent photographs of what you were doing.”

The 31-year-old from Ash in Surrey was caught after an undercover officer tracked his conversations in chat rooms where he posted pictures of him with a tied up baby, according to Get Surrey.

Prosecuting Wendy Cottee said Poole’s crimes were “systemic and calculated sexual abuse” and said he had shared the images he had made with others online - even giving advice on how to avoid getting caught.

Poole had been previously convicted for 15 counts of possessing indecent images of children in October 2008 and received a 32-week suspended prison sentence.

He wrote to his wife and mother before sentencing to apologise for his crime and said he had problems with alcohol and debt.

He claimed his crimes “made him sick” and he never enjoyed them.

Defending Poole, his barrister Rina-Marie Hill said there was “not a lot” of mitigation she could suggest for a lighter sentence other than he had pleaded guilty early.