DOZENS of furious protesters lined up outside a sex offender’s house on Tuesday afternoon, to protest that he lives just 10 yards from a Meirionnydd primary school.

Philip Nigel Hewitt, aged 70, admitted seven charges of possessing and distributing nearly 900 indecent images of children at Mold Crown Court on Friday.

He lives close to Tanygrisiau primary school.

The charges included making by downloading from the internet indecent images of children in categories A, B and C.

Mr Hewitt admitted he possessed 878 still images of children and accepted three charges of distributing indecent images.

The offences took place between 2008 and November of last year.

Dewi Prysor, a writer from Trawsfynydd, is outraged that Hewitt is allowed to live so near the school.

“Mr Hewitt has pleaded guilty to making and distributing indecent photos of young children and is due in court for sentencing, but it keeps getting postponed,” Mr Prysor said.

“During this time, he is allowed to live at his home, Y Llythyrdy (old post office), literally 10 yards from Tanygrisiau primary school gates.

“Parents with their kids have no option but to pass his front door every day.

“Also, older children attending Ysgol y Moelwyn catch the bus outside his front door.”

In response to the situation, Dewi and other “extremely concerned” parents staged a peaceful protest outside Hewitt’s house.

“Our aim is to highlight concerns that this man is allowed to remain residing so close to the school, and to call on the authorities to remove him from our community.

“We are very dissatisfied with the lack of liaison between the authorities and parents, and outraged that no-one informed parents, teachers, school staff or residents that a paedophile was living 10 yards from the school.”

Duncan Bould, who defended Mr Hewitt in his case, said that his client was a man of previous good character.

Speaking following the protest outside Mr Hewitt’s, a spokesperson for North Wales Police said: “We were aware of the planned peaceful protest and it was policed appropriately and proportionately without any incident.”