A CHARTERED surveyor will be sentenced at Crown Court after admitting making hundreds of indecent images and films of children.

A court heard how Stuart Woodward, 54, of Westgate Park in Westbourne, pleaded guilty to offences between April 29, 2011 and April 15, 2014.

The films, one of which included a child as young as five, predominantly included pubescent boys and ranged in length from five to 12 minutes.

Of the material found on his laptop and smartphone, 114 were considered category A - the most severe kind - 75 were category B and 101 were category C.

Alison Saunders, prosecuting, said: "Dorset Police received intelligence that he used a particular IP address and had been in contact with a known offender and there had been distribution between the two."

Ms Saunders told the hearing 86 category A videos were found on electronic equipment, seized during a raid by police, at Woodward's property.

Mitigating, Mr Reid told the court it was a "murky world" Woodward had lived in before he'd taken steps to prevent his behaviour, with the help of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

"He was concerned about getting to the bottom of this issue and put steps in place to start off this work," Mr Reid said, who told the court Woodward was first arrested in July 2014.

"In that time it's weighed heavily on him. It's had an extra impact. His plan is to move away from working as hard as he did and that would involve a relocation to Portugal. That's had to be put on hold. You've seen he had a thriving business in property development which had serious problems in 2008."

Woodward - who remains on conditional bail - was referred by Bournemouth Magistrates on Monday to be sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on February 19.