A JUDGE has overturned an internet ban on a Bridgwater man facing 17 child porn charges.

Johnathan Vowles, 23, of Courtway Avenue, appeared at Taunton Crown Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

He was also due to enter a plea on 17 counts of making indecent photographs of a child, but the hearing was adjourned for the court to gather more detail about the number and severity of the images Vowles was alleged to have made.

After ordering Vowles to sign the Sex Offender's Register over the two charges he admitted, Judge Stephen O'Malley adjourned the case and quashed a bail condition previously imposed by magistrates, preventing Vowles from accessing the internet, because he said it could not be implemented.

Judge O'Malley told Vowles: “I will relieve you of the prohibition to access the internet because I think it is unenforceable.”

Afterwards, a spokesman for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which is dedicated to stopping child sex abuse, said: “We have dealt with cases before where an individual has had a condition not to access the internet on his licence, and we have investigated and found them to be active on-line.”