A MUSICIAN and songwriter has admitted downloading more than 300 indecent images of children.

At Bournemouth Crown Court, musician Roy Gaynor pleaded guilty to 16 counts of making indecent images.

The court heard the 68-year-old had 145 moving and still images in the most serious category, along with 26 in category B and 141 in the least serious category C, which are nude images. One involved a baby.

The offences took place between March 8, 2011, and March 5, 2015.

Judge Peter Johnson, who adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, said: "These are serious matters and all sentencing options remain open to the court."

Detectives from Dorset Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) were alerted to Gaynor’s online activities and launched an investigation.

Various computers and electronic devices were subsequently seized at his home in Sea Road, Boscombe.

On artist profile website Starnow Gaynor describes himself as a guitarist, singer and "prolific songwriter" with more than 30 years of experience performing with bands and orchestras.

He performs at weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and other family events.

In 2013 Gaynor wrote and staged a musical called 'No Pasarán!', which followed a group of Irish friends who travelled to Spain to join the International Brigades and fight in the civil war.

Earlier this year he was seeking performers for a new musical called Up the Ressie, said to be loosely based on his own childhood experiences in 1950s London.

Detective Constable Paul Chessell, of the Paedophile Online Investigation Team, said: “Gaynor had made hundreds of indecent images of children, some of which showed the most severe category of abuse.

“I would urge anyone affected by Gaynor’s guilty plea to please contact the Paedophile Online Investigation Team on 101. Support is also available from the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.”

Gaynor was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and released on conditional bail - preventing him from communicating with or being in the unsupervised presence of children aged under-16.

The sentencing will take place on May 22.