A FORMER councillor has been placed on the sex offenders register after changing his plea on the day he was due to stand trial for child sex offences. 

William Kirkbride, 57, of Queen Street, Whitehaven, faced charges of attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence and engaging in sexual communication with a child.

In an agreed basis of plea with the prosecution, Kirkbride pleaded guilty to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence on October 27 last year.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charges at a pre-trial hearing held on February 8.

A trial was due to take place at Carlisle Crown today.

The case has now been adjourned until June 10, to allow a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the Probation Service. 

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Kirkbride, who was described as "a man of previous good character" has been bailed until his next court appearance. 

Recorder Mark Ainsworth, warned Kirkbride that "all options were open" when passing sentence.

He told the defendant: "The fact I'm giving you bail shouldn't give you an indication of your sentence on June 10. That will be a matter for the judge to decide on the day. All options remain open."

In the meantime, Kirkbride must not have any unsupervised contact with children, must not use any internet sites to have contact with anyone under 18 and must reside at a named address.

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