A WORDSLEY man has pleaded guilty to possessing more than 80 indecent images of children.

Nigel Morley, of Oaktree Gardens, had 84 category C images and one category B image of children saved onto his computer and a memory stick when police investigated in November 2014, Dudley Magistrates Court was told.

Mark Cooper, prosecuting, said police were acting on information when they discovered the child pornography stored on the 60-year-old's devices.

He said: “A search warrant was executed by police after Morley was flagged up. A computer and a flash drive memory stick was seized.”

He added that no further action had been taken and Morley was a man of previous good character.

Andrew Chowdry, defending, said Morley claimed to have been in possession of the images as he was trying to gather evidence against a man who he alleges raped a person known to him more than a decade ago.

Mr Chowdry said Morley confronted the man himself but the incident was denied and no arrests were made, so Morley had spent time trawling internet chatrooms, speaking to other men about “intimate things”, in a bid to find the alleged sex offender.

He said Morley initially refused to accept the indecent images he was offered, but he was worried this would cause him to lose contact immediately.

Mr Chowdry said the pictures Morley did save were being used to build a dossier which he planned to give to police to “hopefully link them to the man” he believed responsible for the alleged rape.

Mr Chowdry said his client had “never looked at the images himself, but saved them straight into a memory stick in order to give as evidence to the police”.

And he said the saga had taken its toll on Morley, adding: “His family has cut off all contact with him. His life has been turned upside down.

“He is guilty of having the images and wanted people to know why he had these images and that he is not a paedophile.

“Losing contact with his family has caused him a lot of distress and he has wanted to take his own life.”

Chairman of the magistrates, Richard Smith, ordered a pre-sentence report be completed before sentencing.

Morley was granted conditional bail and is due back before Dudley Magistrates Court for sentencing on October 19.