A man has appeared in court accused of downloading and sharing hundreds of child sex abuse images. Jamie Styles is alleged to have had a total of 549 disturbing photos of youngsters on his mobile phone, which was seized from his house in Morpeth, Northumberland.
Of those pictures, more than 100 are suspected to have been of category A, the most serious kind, which involve penetrative sexual activity. The 60-year-old is also accused of sharing 56 of those images between April and July 2024.
Styles, of Springhill Walk, in Morpeth, is further alleged to have been in possession of illegal animal porn, involving a human and a chicken, and breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) by failing to disclose a USB memory stick and SD card to police.
South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court heard that Styles was alleged to have downloaded the photos between October 2021 and June 2024. Styles appeared in the dock this week to face three counts of making indecent images of children, three of distributing indecent images of children, one of possessing a prohibited image of a child, one of possessing extreme pornography involving an animal and two of breaching a SHPO.
He withheld pleas to all matters and, instead, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address. James Long, prosecuting, said: "It may come as no surprise, given the nature of the offences, that I would invite you to send all matters to the crown court and my friend doesn't seek to persuade you otherwise."
"I would invite you to send the defendant to the crown court. He appears today on a postal requisition. I would invite you to grant him unconditional bail through to the crown court date."
Magistrates declined jurisdiction and released Styles on unconditional bail to next appear at Newcastle Crown Court on July 15.
