A 60-year-old man, who now lives on the Shotley peninsula, has admitted possessing more than 18,000 indecent images of children.

Andrew Richardson, of Old School House, Shotley Gate, appeared at Suffolk Magistrates' Court yesterday (October 29) and pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images and a further offence of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

Richardson was living in Sudbury when he was caught on December 29, 2019, with 3,829 images of the most serious kind - category A - on a portable hard drive.

While on August 25, 2020, also in Sudbury, Richardson was found to be in possession of 4,308 category B images and 10,496 images of category C.

Ipswich magistrates sent the case to the crown court and ordered a pre-sentence report from the Probation Service and Richardson was granted unconditional bail until he appears at Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing on a date to be determined.