A Bury St Edmunds man has been warned he could be jailed for possessing more than 2,000 indecent images of children and distributing them over the internet.

Samuel Branthwaite was due to have been sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on Tuesday (September 6) but the case had to be adjourned because his application for legal aid hadn’t been approved

Adjourning sentence until October 3 to allow Branthwaite’s legal aid application to be processed, Recorder Paul Garlick told him it was important he should be legally represented as he could be facing an immediate prison sentence.

Branthwaite, of Ashwell Road, Bury St Edmunds, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to eight offences relating to indecent images of children.

They included three offences of making indecent images of children, three offences of distributing indecent images of children, possessing prohibited images of children, and possessing extreme pornographic images.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard that police had executed a warrant at 30-year-old Branthwaite’s home after receiving information that his email had been used to upload indecent images of children to the internet

Officers seized a number of devices following the raid on October 5, 2021, and Branthwaite had immediately made admissions to the offences to officers at his home.

When the devices were analysed they were found to contain 822 indecent images of children in the most serious level A category as well as 803 images in category B.

A further 649 indecent images of children in the lowest level C category were also found.

It was also discovered that Branthwaite had sent indecent images of children to other people over the internet including five category A indecent images, two category B images and two in category C to a user over the platform Kik.

He had also distributed one category A indecent image to another person, and a further two category B images to a different user via messaging application Wickr.

A total of 179 prohibited images of children were also discovered on his devices as well as 80 extreme pornographic images involving animals.

Robert Pollington, for Branthwaite, said it had been hoped that the defendant’s legal aid application would have been approved by Tuesday’s hearing.

He said Branthwaite, who has moved from the area, was on benefits and couldn’t afford to travel back to the court until the end of September.