MALVERN Town Council has taken down a picture of a disgraced former mayor after his conviction for possessing child pornography.

Former councillors Will Richards and Mike Charles had previously called on the council to remove Julian Roskams' image from the chamber.

Roskams received a 16-month suspended sentence on Monday, March 20, for downloading 283 'category A' images, 346 'category B' images and 529 'category C' images.

Mr Charles said: "It's disgusting leaving the thing up in the first place. I was very pleased when I heard they took it down.

"They were going to leave it until May 23rd [the date of the next Malvern Town Council meeting].

"I think they got rid of it because it caused them too much trouble. It's raised a lot of anger and annoyed many people."

Mr Richards said: "I'm glad they have done it. I was disappointed they wouldn't think to do it straight away due to the nature of the offending.

"I'm also surprised that they didn't even notify anyone, including me, that they decided to take it down.

"The council are there to represent the public at large who would have been naturally appalled by paedophile behaviour."

Mr Charles said at a council meeting on Tuesday, April 4: "The point is, that picture shouldn't be there."

He added the council was advertising a criminal and said most people would have gone to prison for Roskams' offences.

Cllr Peter Smith said that the proposal to remove the picture was worth thinking about.

A spokesman for Malvern Town Council said: “Malvern Town Council can confirm that the portrait of Julian Roskams was removed from public view last week.

“We can also confirm that the council has received a total of two verbal complaints about the portrait and as a response to these two complaints, the council agreed at its meeting on 4 April that it would discuss the matter at its next meeting scheduled for 23 May.

“In the meantime, however circumstances have arisen that have led to the removal of the photograph in the interest of all parties involved.

“The council has no further comment to make and will continue to focus on is work for the community of Malvern.”