Essex man faces court over claims he owned sick porn featuring kids, horses, an octopus and EELS
Police raided Michael Ward's Essex home in January and his trial will begin next month at Chelmsford Crown Court
A MAN charged with possession of eel, octopus and child porn will stand trial for the 1,401 indecent images police allegedly found on his computers.
Michael Ward, from Felsted, Essex, is due to appear next at Chelmsford Crown Court on November 1, after police seized two devices with indecent images and videos during a raid in January.
He is charged with holding 210 images and videos in category A, the most serious.
People having sex with animals are alleged to feature in 27 of those videos and images - the animals include horses, dogs, an octopus and an eel.
Police were tipped off by the National Crime Agency before carrying out a raid on his home.
The 70-year-old did not enter a plea during a preliminary hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on October 4.
He is also accused of having 248 category B images and three category B films, 900 category C images and one category C video, .
RELATED STORIES
It is also claimed that a further 12 category C images were found on a USB stick belonging to Ward.
All of the offences are alleged to have taken place on January 15, 2016.
Prosecuting, Kathy Wilson, said: "Mr Ward has no previous convictions, but this should not affect the determination, such is the quantity and gravity of these images."
Chair of the magistrates, Robert Prince, released him until his next appearance on conditional bail, which prevents Ward from making unsupervised contact with children under 16.
Ward's legal representative, Philip Witherspoon said there have been "no problems" with this bail arrangement to date.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.