AN ELDERLY man has appeared in court for downloading indecent images of children, one featuring a naked boy aged 11 years on a bed with an adult.

Brian Ferris, aged 80, of Bath Road, Worcester, admitted three charges relating to child pornography when he appeared before a deputy district judge at Worcester Magistrates Court on Monday.

He admitted possession of an indecent photograph of a child (a movie) of category B on January 30 and two counts of making indecent photographs of children between November 19 last year and January 26 this year. The first of the making indecent images charge involved two indecent images (category B) and the second nine images (category C).

Jackie Rogers, prosecuting, said Ferris was arrested as part of Operation Spade which involved investigating those who had purchased indecent images from a company in Canada. Mrs Rogers said: "He was identified as having made purchases from that site and a warrant was executed at his home on January 30 this year and items were seized for forensic examination." She said an aggravating feature of the case was that it involved a moving image. She added: "Purchasing from this site indicates some involvement in networking where he's able to access this type of image."

There is an older relevant conviction dating back to 1994.

Ruth Edwards, defending, said reports would need to be prepared before the matter was sentenced but deputy district judge RT Marshall said the case was a matter for crown court rather than magistrates court because of its seriousness.

Mrs Edwards argued that the case should remain in magistrates court but the judge disagreed. He said: "The fact that he has gone out and purchased this material aggravates it as opposed to him coming across it accidentally."

Mrs Edwards said one of the images featured a young boy of 11 who is lying naked on a bed with an adult female. She maintained the case fell within the sentencing powers of the magistrates court.

The case will next be heard at Worcester Crown Court on November 21. Ferris was granted bail until that date on condition he lives and sleeps at his address in Bath Road, he has no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 (and the person providing that supervision must be approved by social services) and that he sign the Sex Offender Register immediately.