A NORTHWICH man accused of multiple child sexual abuse offences will enter a plea at Chester Crown Court next year.

Mark Chesworth, 20 and of Boundary Lane South, in Cuddington, did not indicate plea to six offences at Chester Magistrates Court on Tuesday, December 2.

He is accused of possessing 70 indecent pictures of a child; making 23 Category C images of children; distributing an indecent image of a child; making seven Category B pictures of children; making 35 Category A images and possession a prohibited image of a child.

All offences date between September 1, 2019 and March 21 this year.

Crown prosecutor Valeriya Tonkinson told the court that on March 21 this year, police attended his address and arrested him, and confiscated two devices including an iPhone.

Mrs Tonkinson said that the case was not suitable for the magistrates court and asked for it to be sent to Chester Crown Court.

Chantelle Stocks, defending, did not oppose the application when she told chairman of the bench Ian Williams that in her view, it was a crown court case.

Chesworth will be expected to enter a plea on Thursday, January 2.

He was given conditional bail and told not to have unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16, not to sleep at a property with children present overnight and not to change his address without notification.

An interim sexual harm prevention order was also continued to run alongside the bail conditions.