A FORMER soldier was told by a judge today to 'start addressing the problem' which led him to download child abuse images into his computer.

Desmond Moore, aged 48, of Cirencester, who spent 18 years in the Gloucestershire Regiment as a dog handler, had denied making indecent pictures of a child and was to have stood jury trial next month.

But today he belatedly changed his plea to guilty and was bailed for a pre-sentence report.

He will be sentenced on May 9.

The judge told him to co-operate with the probation service and to attend appointments as required for the report to be completed.

The judge said he was 'concerned' that Moore had not admitted the offence of making 7 Category C indecent images till now but he supposed it was due to 'fear' on Moore's part.

"Now you have pleaded guilty you can start addressing the problem which has led you to this material in the first place," said Judge Lawrie.

"But I express scepticism about post traumatic stress disorder explaining why you were looking at child porn. The pre sentence report will give me a better idea about that."

At an earlier hearing when Moore had denied the charge of making the indecent images between December 2013 and August 2017, the court was told he had 'an interest in women dressed as schoolgirls.'

He was at that stage questioning whether the children shown in the images on his computer were genuinely the ages stated by the police.

His barrister said at that time: "He will accept that he has an interest in women dressed as schoolgirls and has searched for material in that genre.

"But he says he simply had no knowledge of these images."