An Aberystwyth man who stored close to half a million indecent images of children on devices over a 10-year period and distributed tens of thousands of them, has been jailed for 28 months.

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 bestiality involving 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 to possession of the extreme pornographic image of bestiality involving a dog between 3 February 2015 and 14 February last year.

Field was sentenced to two years and four months in jail at Swansea Crown Court.

He will be on the sex offenders register for the next 10 years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.