A 21-year-old man has admitted possessing 1,856 indecent images of children.

Joao Pedro Figueiredo swapped images online with another user and admitted he was sexually attracted to children.

Figueiredo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of the possessing or downloading indecent images of children and will be sentenced at the Court of General Gaol Delivery on September 18 after a probation report has been completed.

He made no application for bail and is remanded in custody.

Prosecuting advocate Rebecca Cubbon told the court that, in March, information shared between Manx authorities and the National Crime Agency in the UK confirmed that Figueiredo had uploaded multiple indecent images to the internet.

A search warrant was executed at his home and devices were seized.

When interviewed on April 22 Figueiredo denied any offences and said that he was not attracted to children.

However, the following day he contacted police and requested a second interview. He then admitted the offences and told police he was attracted to underage girls.

images

The court heard that Figueiredo, of Close ny Mooragh, Ramsey, had used a file sharing application called Discord to send another user indecent images and had received some in return.

He said that he had been struggling with his mental health.

The images were assessed using the Copine Scale which measures the severity of pictures and videos from one to five, with five being the most severe.

A total of 593 images were categorised at level one, 187 at level two, 67 at level three, 988 at level four, and 21 at level five.

Prosecutor Ms Cubbon submitted that the case should be committed to the Court of General Gaol Delivery given the level of severity.

Defence advocate Jane Gray agreed that the case should go to the higher court and asked that a probation report be prepared before sentencing.

The case will be due for mention only on September 11.