AN ABERYSTWYTH man who had close to half a million indecent images of children over a 10-year period and distributed tens of thousands of them, will be sentenced in Crown Court later this month.

William John Field, of 3 Queen Street, pleaded guilty to several charges of making and distributing indecent images of children, and one charge of possessing an extreme pornographic image of intercourse with a dog, when he appeared before Aberystwyth Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 3 March.

Field, 54, admitted making a total of 424,401 indecent images of a child, including 4,307 of the most severe class A; 4,328 of class B; and 415,766 of class C.

All the offences took place in Aberystwyth between 3 September 2010 and 26 May last year.

He also admitted distributing a total of 52,534 indecent images of a child between 1 January and 25 June last year.

Field also pleaded guilty at the hearing to possession of the extreme pornographic image of intercourse with a dog between 3 February 2015 and 14 February last year.

Magistrates made Field the subject of an interim sexual harm prevention order until sentencing.

Field, who is now required to be on the sex offenders’ register, will be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on 17 March.

He was released on unconditional bail until the hearing date.