MELBOURNE, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A British man has been sentenced to four years in prison for publishing up to 100,000 pictures of sexual child abuse on Facebook, officials say.

Ian Green, 45, used the Internet social networking site to swap child pornography with people in the United States, Australia and Canada, the Melbourne Herald-Sun reported Friday.

Green admitted to 25 charges of making, possessing and distributing child abuse images at Chichester Crown Court in Sussex, southeastern England.

The photos were discovered when police in an Australian child sex probe spotted them and tipped off British authorities, the newspaper said.

"Green cleverly set up private Facebook accounts containing images of child abuse and then gave access to other pedophiles," Sussex Police Detective Constable Martin Harmer said. "Every child depicted in images such as these is a victim."

Five other Britons were arrested in the sting and 11 others in various locations were being sought, the report said.