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A 51-year-old man has admitted carrying out cyber attacks which resulted in more than 300 websites including crime prevention sites being taken offline.

Ian Sullivan, from Merseyside, pleaded guilty on Thursday to 21 counts of an unauthorised or reckless act with intent to impair computer operations.

In 2013, business and public sector websites were targeted to make servers or networks unavailable.

Sullivan, of Bootle, will be sentenced on 1 May at Liverpool Crown Court.

'Deprived vulnerable people'

A National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation found children's social services, social housing and the advisory service CAFCAS websites had been affected.

It found Sullivan, of Farmer Place, flooded servers with data so they were inaccessible to people trying to use the sites.

NCA said no sensitive information was obtained.

Steven Pye, senior operations manager at the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: "Sullivan's actions are likely to have deprived vulnerable people of access to important information, ranging from where to get support on family break-up to reporting crime anonymously."