A BARRISTER from the North-East has admitted downloading child pornography on his computer.

John Temple pleaded guilty to a total of 34 offences, including the possession of more than 3,700 indecent images of children spanning more than four years.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that 382 of the photographs found in the possession of 46-year-old Temple were in the two most serious categories of such images.

Temple, who practised as a criminal barrister from chambers in Durham, was remanded on bail to await sentence at a date within the next two months, which has yet to be confirmed.

He pleaded guilty to 16 offences of making indecent photographs, 17 of distributing them and one of possessing 3,753 such images.

The dates of the offences span from January 1, 2000, to May 27, last year.

Temple, of Satley Plough, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, is a former officer with North Yorkshire Police and was arrested after his home was raided on June 2 as part of an investigation by the National Crime Squad.

During the one-and-a-half hour hearing before the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe, Temple's defence barrister, Robert Woodcock, described him as "now living on his uppers".

He asked for sentence to be adjourned to allow for the preparation of pre-sentence and psychiatric reports.

He said that the psychiatric report would be shown to the prosecution, who may then order their own report.

Mr Woodcock said that Temple denied the suggestion put to him by police in interview about his role in the distribution ring.

"The suggestion that he played a fairly commanding role in deciding who received what and who did not is vehemently denied," he said.

Judge Globe remanded Temple on bail to his father's home in Park Road, Scarborough, with a condition of residence and reporting once a week to Scarborough police station.

He ordered him to sign on the sex offenders' register, though the length of the order will not be decided until the sentencing hearing.

The case was adjourned.