A FORMER policeman and a leading figure in the farming world is facing jail for downloading and distributing indecent images of children on the internet.

Charles Kevin Littleboy shared some of his vile pictures – which included sex with animals – with other perverts, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

The 55-year-old, from Howe, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, also took part in sick chatroom conversations with other people about child abuse and bestiality.

Littleboy is a former director of Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which organises the world-renowned Great Yorkshire Show annually in Harrogate.

He represented the organisation at an inquiry into the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, and also worked as a policeman in the county until the 1980s.

In court, he admitted 11 charges of possessing indecent images of children, four of distributing them and five charges of possessing extreme pornography.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing 3,889 indecent images. All the charges relate to a six-year period up to February 2010.

Littleboy – who is known by his middle name, Kevin – will be sentenced next month after a background report has been prepared by a probation officer.

Judge Peter Fox granted him bail until his next appearance, but told him: “My giving you bail, you must clearly understand, is no indication of your sentence.”

The maximum sentence for distributing indecent images of children is ten years.

Littleboy, who has run a 600-acre farm near Thirsk since 1995, was arrested in February 2010 after an investigation by online child protection officers.

Experts found the images on his computers – some of which had been put on a filesharing site – along with chatroom discussions about child abuse.

Simon Reevell, for Littleboy, said the correspondence was “all fantasy” and told Judge Fox: “There was no prospect or desire for enactment.”

He said Littleboy had searched internet sites for the images, but had deleted all but a handful of them after looking at them.

“There was something of a trawl, but on inspection, all but 15 were viewed and deleted,”

said Mr Reevell. “There was no attempt on the part of the defendant to retain level four or five images.”