Man charged in child porn inquiry

Police were using information provided by the FBI

A man from Lancashire is due before magistrates charged with making indecent photographs of children.

Robert Skeer, 46, of Thornton Cleveleys has been charged with five counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children.

He will appear before Fleetwood Magistrates Court on Thursday 3 October.

Two other men who were arrested by police in the county on Thursday were released on bail.

The public can be reassured that we are responding to information about the use of child pornography on the internet

Detective Superintendent Mick Turner

The arrests followed information provided by the FBI in the United States.

Officers carried out the arrests at three separate addresses in the Fylde Coast and Morecambe areas on Thursday morning.

One man from the Morecambe area has been released on police bail and is due to answer that in four weeks, pending further police inquiries.

The third man, from the Blackpool area, has also been released on police bail and is due to return to a police station in a week.

Names provided

During Thursday's operation computer equipment was seized and further searches of a number of premises are planned.

Detective Superintendent Mick Turner, of Lancashire Police, said: "The public can be reassured that we are responding to this and other information about the use of child pornography on the internet.

"The force received a number of names and other information following an inquiry in America into child pornography on the internet.

"For some time now our intelligence officers have been working thoroughly and systematically to link those details to specific people."