A 38-year-old Ipswich man has admitted downloading hundreds of indecent images of boys as young as six.

Martin Boyd told Suffolk Magistrates' Court he was "out of control" during a two-year period in which he downloaded almost 500 indecent images and videos.

Boyd admitted three charges of making indecent images of children on Tuesday.

The court heard how, in November 2019, Suffolk police received information that a resident at Boyd's Peterhouse Close address had shared an indecent image of a boy online.

Prosecutor Priscilla Afful-Mensah said officers executed a warrant at the property, in the Stoke Park area, and seized a total of 28 electronic devices capable of storing data.

Of the 22 devices then submitted for further forensic examination, two computer towers and a USB drive were found to contain 31 of the most serious category A images and eight category A videos, along with 183 category B images and four category B videos, and 245 category C images and six category C videos.

Miss Afful-Mensah said the total included images of boys aged six or seven being sexually abused by adult males.

In an initial police interview, Boyd admitted having viewed indecent images of boys aged as young as 13 for sexual gratification.

During a subsequent interview, he accepted that, while he did not recognise all of the images, they were downloaded on devices to which no one else had access.

A man of previous good character, Boyd told the court: "I agree with everything that's been said.

"It was just a bad period I was going through, with depression and my mother being ill in hospital.

"It got out of hand and I shouldn't have done it. I was out of control."

Magistrates decided to accept jurisdiction for the offences but requested a pre-sentence report from the probation service.

They granted an interim sexual harm prevention order, restricting Boyd's movements and access to technology, until his sentencing date at the same court on Tuesday, August 24.