A NEWPORT man admitted 18 offences, which included possessing more than 11,000 indecent images of children.

Ian Hustler, 29, of Merchant Close, Newport, appeared at the city’s crown court, where he pleaded guilty to all but one of 19 charges put in front of him.

He pleaded guilty to possessing a total of 11,436 images of children, between February 13, 2009, and March 2, 2011.

Hustler also admitted attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity on April 3, 2010, and six counts of distributing photographs of children.

These offences all took place between late 2009 and early 2010, with four offences on November 30, 2009, and two on April 3, 2010. Hustler also admitted ten charges of making indecent images of children, with the offences taking place between February 13, 2009, and March 4, 2011.

The ten charges were read out and each included a Jpeg number and name Hustler gave to each picture – with him labelling one ‘Little Girl’.

While Hustler admitted the first 18 charges, he denied a 19th charge, which alleged that he possessed 50 extreme pornographic pictures between February 13, 2009, and April 31, 2010.

The charge sheet described them as “extreme, grossly offensive and disgusting”, with them depicting animals.

Prosecutor Jason Howells said that this charge would have little impact on the length of Hustler’s sentence if he were found guilty of it.

He therefore requested that it lie on file, with the defendant sentenced for the 18 counts he had admitted.

Judge Rhys Rowlands granted Hustler bail while a presentence report is compiled.

He warned him not to read anything into this in terms of whether he receives a custodial sentence or not when he returns to Newport Crown Court on June 25.