Jon Venables, one of those convicted of murdering the toddler James Bulger 17 years ago could face up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to child pornography.

Venables admitted to downloading 57 indecent images of children onto his computer, and to distributing the images as far back as February 2008 and as recently as February of this year.

Venables received a new identity as did his fellow murderer Robert Thompson after they were found guilty of the brutal killing of two year old Bulger when they were just ten.

The most recent crimes committed by Venables were discovered when his probation officer visited him and found him attempting to delete files on his computer and to take out its hard drive.

The probation officer initially visited Venables at his own request because he feared his new identity was about to be revealed.

Most of the images of child pornography were level one, the least serious, prosecutors said, however four of the pictures were level four, the second most serious, with two at level three and three at level two.

During the court proceedings Venables appeared via video link, but the court was arranged in such a way as that only the judge could see his face, in order to protect his new identity, which he received when he was released with Thompson in 2001.