A 23-year-old man has admitted making and distributing indecent images of children.

Kristian Craig, of John Street, Workington, pleaded guilty to the following offences when he appeared at Workington Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday:

  • Making 18 Category A indecent images of a child (the most serious category of abuse images)
  • Making 11 Category B indecent images of a child
  • Making 42 Category C indecent images of a child
  • Distributing 10 Category A indecent images of a child
  • Distributing one Category B indecent image of a child
  • Distributing 13 Category C indecent images of a child

The offences took place in Workington between April 20 and 25, 2020.

Prosecutor Pamela Fee suggested the case was not suitable for sentencing at the magistrates’ court and should be committed to the crown court.

Outlining the case, Ms Fee said the defendant’s phone had been analysed and a number of images had been found.

The images had been downloaded and saved to his device. Among the most serious was a Category A video of a four-year-old child.

The images had been distributed between the defendant and a number of other people.

Ms Fee said the starting point for distributing Category A images was three years in custody and the offences were therefore “clearly outside” of magistrates’ sentencing powers.

The defendant had no previous convictions.

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Mike Woolaghan, defending, said: “I agree – it’s significantly beyond this court’s sentencing powers.”

Mr Woolaghan requested a pre-sentence report be prepared by the probation service ahead of Craig being sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on May 12.

Craig must present himself as a registered sex offender at the police station within the next three days. He was granted unconditional bail until his next court appearance.