A 41-year-old man has appeared in court charged with possessing more than 30,000 indecent images of children.

Daniel John Carpenter is yet to enter pleas to seven counts of the offence.

Prosecuting advocate Hazel Carroon said that police are still to analyse 20 more devices and that there was therefore potential for further charges.

Ms Carroon said that images found so far had been categorised using the Copine scale, which assesses the severity of images from one to five, with five being the most severe.

A total of 3,340 images were found at level one, 175 at level two, 870 at level three, 945 at level four, 43 at level five, and 26,692 which had not been categorised.

Defence advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge said that her client was likely to enter guilty pleas to the charges.

The case was adjourned until February 7 when it is hoped that the other devices will have been examined.

No bail application was made and Mr Carpenter, who is of no fixed address and appeared via video link from the prison, is remanded in custody.