Felsted man faces allegations over indecent photos

A 70-year-old Felsted man has appeared in court accused of possessing around 1,500 indecent images of children.

Michael Ward, of Stevens Lane, who is accused of four offences, is also alleged to have extreme pornographic images of people having sex with animals – including an octopus and an eel.

Three charges allege making, or downloading, indecent photographs of children, both still and moving, between December 8, 2014 and January 16 this year.

One charge relates to 210 images of the highest category A. Magistrates were given an example, which concerned a baby of six months.

Two other offences relate to 913 indecent images and movies of category C and to 215 at category B.

The fourth charge is possessing 27 extreme pornographic images and movies on January 15, 2016.

Ward did not indicate a plea to any of the allegations during the hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (October 4) and the magistrates declined jurisdiction and sent the case to Chelmsford Crown Court.

A preliminary hearing will be held on November 1.

Ward was bailed, with a condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 16.