Man faces crown court sentencing after admitting having hundreds of images of children
A 65-year-old man faces sentencing at crown court after pleading guilty to making hundreds of images of children, including 91 in the most serious category.
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Gary Wootton, now of Borth Crossroads, Abergele, in Conwy, admitted three counts of making indecent photographs of children over a 13-year period and one count of being in possession of 12 prohibited images of children on March 23, 2022.
All the offences took place in north Shropshire.
Wootton appeared at Telford Magistrates Court on Tuesday where he admitted making 91 indecent images of category A (the most serious category in the eyes of the law), 72 category B images and 107 category C images between January 3, 2009 and March 24, 2022. Those are offences under the Protection of Children Act 1978.
Sharan Gill, prosecuting, told the court that it had insufficient power to sentence Wootton as the offences carry a potential starting point of six years in custody.
She said police acted on information that the defendant had been accessing a particular website.
Kate Cooper, mitigating, agreed that the crown court is the "correct venue" for dealing with the matters.
District Judge Ian Barnes told Wootton that he will be sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court on a date and time to be fixed.
He ordered a pre-sentence report to be compiled by the probation service for the judge to take into account.
Wootton was told by the judge that in light of his conviction he will be registered as a sex offender and must report to police within three days.
