A FORMER Dudley councillor is due to appear in court next month after being charged with possessing indecent photographs of a child.

Ex-Wordsley Labour councillor Derrick Hemingsley, aged 57, of Penzer Street, Kingswinford, had been on police bail for a year while officers investigated and he has now been formally charged.

Mr Hemingsley, who was involved in the Wordsley Speed and Street Watch initiatives, the Friends of Wordsley Park group and at Belle Vue School in Wordsley as a governor, was put on suspension by the Labour party last November (2016), pending the outcome of the police investigation, and his term of office officially ended in April after he failed to attend council meetings for six months.

He is now set to appear at Walsall Magistrates Court on January 12.