Wigan man faces indecent image charges

Simon Parnell, 42, of Warrington Road, Spring View, faced five charges at Wigan And Leigh Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Thursday).

Three of the charges were of making indecent images of a child between December 1, 2008 and April 19, 2017.

He is alleged to have had 46 category A photographs of children - the most serious - as well as 39 category B images and 79 classed as category C.

Parnell was also accused of possessing a prohibited image of a child and possessing an extreme pornographic image involving dogs between the same dates.

Ged Frazer, defending, told magistrates Parnell would not be indicating how he intended to plead to the charges.

Nicola Yeadon, prosecuting, said she did not believe the case could be heard there and asked magistrates to commit it to the crown court.

She suggested that Parnell could be granted bail with conditions, which Mr Frazer agreed with.

Peter Sloane, chairman of the bench, told Parnell: “We are going to release you on bail.

“You need to appear before Bolton Crown Court on March 21 at 10am. There will be a trial management hearing on that occasion to decide how the case is going to progress.”

Parnell was remanded on conditional bail and told he must not have unsupervised contact with a child under the age of 18, apart from inadvertently in daily life, and he must not possess or use any device capable of using the internet.