TOP Suffolk Tory Ben Redsell today pledged to clear his name after he was charged with a string of sex offences.The 28-year-old Suffolk county councillor, of Melton Meadow Road, Melton, has been charged with 14 sex offences and four thefts and he will appear before magistrates in Ipswich on December 3.

TOP Suffolk Tory Ben Redsell today pledged to clear his name after he was charged with a string of sex offences.

The 28-year-old Suffolk county councillor, of Melton Meadow Road, Melton, has been charged with 14 sex offences and four thefts and he will appear before magistrates in Ipswich on December 3.

The 28-year-old said yesterday he was innocent of all the charges.

He said: ''I have resigned from the Conservative group to save them any further embarrassment. I maintain my innocence and I will be fighting all these charges.''

He added he wanted to remain a councillor and he would stand as an independent.

Redsell was charged when he attended Felixstowe police station yesterday morning to answer bail.

Anne-Marie Breach, a spokeswoman with Suffolk police, said: ''A 28-year-old man has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, two of indecent assault, three counts of possession of indecent images of children, seven counts of making indecent images of children and four counts of theft.”

The allegations include one count of sexual assault by penetration, one of sexual assault by touching and two historic offences of indecent assault on a female under 16 years. He is due to appear at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court in Ipswich on December 3.

Redsell, who was given bail, is also a district and town councillor for Woodbridge. He became deputy mayor of Woodbridge in May and he said he had now resigned from that position.

He was arrested in September after a 19-year-old woman alleged she had been assaulted on August 24. She claimed the alleged incident happened at her home after a night out.