A former Plaid Cymru MP and regional Assembly Member has pleaded guilty to making hundreds of indecent images of children.
Simon George Thomas, of 22 Llwyn yr Eos, Penparcau, who resigned as a Mid and West Wales AM, after being arrested by officers in July, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, including 94 still and 56 moving images of the most serious category A when he appeared before Aberystwyth magistrates on Wednesday morning.
Thomas, 54, also pleaded guilty to making 87 still images and 16 moving images of category B, and 354 still and five moving images of children of category C.
The offences took place on or before July 23 this year at Penparcau.
Thomas, who had represented the Mid and West Wales region since 2011 was MP for Ceredigion between 2000 and 2005.
After losing his seat at the House of Commons he became a development manager with Technium in Pembrokeshire before becoming a special senior adviser to the Welsh Government.
He’ll next appear before Mold Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, October 31.
A pre-sentence report will be made before that date ahead of sentencing for the offences, while Thomas will have to register as a sex offender on an interim basis.
Thomas was released on bail with conditions not to have unsupervised contact with under-16s and to surrender his passport to police.