A 59-year-old man is due to appear in court charged with a string of child sex offences, including making more than 1,000 indecent images of children.

Gary Francis is accused of multiple offences, including possessing and distributing indecent images of children and engaging in sexual communication with a child.

The defendant of Abbots Meade, Preston Road, Yeovil, Somerset, is due to appear at Worcester Magistrates Courts this Thursday at 2pm to face multiple sexual offence charges.

He faces three charges of possessing indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child in Worcester between February 1, 2018 and October 29, 2021 -  220 category A images (the most serious level), 242 category B images and 736 category C images (1,198 indecent images in total).

 He also faces one three charges of distributing indecent images over the same dates - 14 at category A, five at category B and 177 at category C.

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Francis is further accused of three charges of being an adult who attempted to engage in sexual communication with a child on December 30, 2020, again between June 5, 2021 and June 8, 2021 and on September 1, 2021.

These charges involve alleged sexual conversations, the exchange of indecent images and pretending to be a 13-year-old child.

Francis is further charged with breaching a sexual harm prevention order by allegedly breaching the notification requirements on July 20, 2021, 'by using alias name identified as Lukes4479', which he was prohibited from doing by the order made at Taunton Crown Court on October 18, 2013.