A 44-year-old man has appeared in court accused of making more than 200 indecent images of children.

Shane Gibson, of Highfields, Bentley, near Ipswich, is facing four charges.

Three of the accusations are that he made indecent photographs/pseudo photographs of a child.

He is also charged with one offence of distributing an indecent photograph/pseudo photograph of a child.

The distribution allegation relates to April 13 last year while the remainder of the accusations are said to have taken place on or before July 23, 2014.

The charges are said to involve a total of 227 images.

The images are alleged to span the grading levels A, B and C, with Level A being the most serious.

Gibson made his first appearance before South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court in Ipswich.

He did not enter any plea during the hearing.

Prosecutor Corrinne Gook-Hurren told the court the charges included 99 Level A images.

Due to the nature of the case it was deemed not suitable for trial in a magistrates’ court.

District Judge Celia Dawson said the starting point for sentencing Level A offences was one year in custody.

She told Gibson his case would be committed to Ipswich Crown Court as the magistrates’ court had insufficient sentencing powers should there be a conviction in the case.

Gibson’s next appearance is due to be before the crown court on January 27. A trial window of between May 25 and July 3 was given.

Gibson was released on bail with the condition that he was not to have unsupervised contact with any person under the age of 18.