DISGRACED former councillor John Arthur Pilkington faces an "inevitable" jail sentence for possessing 30,000 images of child pornography.

Pilkington, 61, admitted 12 offences when he appeared before Leeds Crown Court on Friday.

Ten charges related to the making of indecent pseudo photographs of children between July 11 1998 and November 10 2002.

The other two counts alleged that he possessed indecent photographs and movie clips of children on November 13 2002.

Pilkington, who has no previous convictions, will not know his fate until the end of the month as the case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report.

But Judge Kerry MacGill told the ex-Craven district councillor, who lives at Springfield, High Bentham, that the adjournment should not be taken as an indication that he would escape prison.

"You have pleaded guilty to very serious matters. They will inevitably lead to a custodial sentence," he warned.

Pilkington was ordered to register as a sex offender straight away.

The court heard that around 30,000 indecent photographs of children were found in his possession and 10 per cent of those were analysed by police using the Copine scale.

The scale has five levels with one being the least serious and five the most serious.

The judge was told that of the 3,000 images analysed in this case, 300 - or 10 per cent - were categorised as level four.

Defence barrister Richard Clews said that the prosecution would argue that this was a random selection and the other 90 per cent of pictures not analysed would contain similar images.

But he contended that in fairness to the defendant this inference could not be made.

"I anticipate, however, that the issue can be resolved by a submission to the sentencing judge," said Mr Clews.

He added that the defence had asked for a medical report to be prepared.

Pilkington will return to the court on Friday January 30 and was granted bail on condition he lived at his High Bentham address.

He was one of eight North Yorkshire men arrested in November 2002 as part of Operation Ore, a nationwide investigation into computer crime, child abuse and indecency.

However he was not charged until September 2003. The following day, he resigned from the council after serving as the ward representative for Bentham for nearly 20 years.

During his council service, he worked hard for the North Craven community and was a key figure on the committee responsible for bringing money into Bentham through the Market Towns Initiative.

He also played a leading role in the transfer of Craven Council's housing stock into the hands of a housing association.