A paedophile from Melksham has pleaded guilty to seven sexual offences, after police discovered more than 400 obscene images of children on his computer.

Peter Chorley, 46, of King Street, admitted possessing 427 indecent photographs and videos of children at North West Wiltshire Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He also pleaded guilty to four counts of downloading indecent images of children, possessing a prohibited image of a child, and possessing images of men and women having sex with dogs and horses.

The court heard that police had been monitoring peer-to-peer networks used to share illegal material, and had tracked one of the computers used to Chorley’s address.

Following a raid on his property police conducted a forensic examination of Chorley’s computer, where they discovered the files saved in clearly-marked folders on an external hard drive, in what they described as a clear attempt to “make them more accessible at a later date”.

It also revealed some of the video footage had been watched the evening before his arrest.

About 95 per cent of the images depicted children aged under 13, with the youngest only two years old. More than 250 of the images seized fell into the most severe category A.

The video footage on Chorley’s laptop totalled 63 hours of viewing time.

He was released on unconditional bail pending sentence, and will appear before Swindon Crown Court on July 18, where he will face at least nine months' imprisonment and will be put on the sex offenders' register.