A CONVICTED sex offender caught with indecent images of children on his laptop has been jailed for 16 months.

Roy Ingham was found in possession of the material after police executed a search warrant at his room in a bed and breakfast in Bolton Road, Blackburn.

When computer equipent seized last October was examined, 66 indecent images of different levels of seriousness were found, plus three moving clips.

Ingham, 52, had pleaded guilty to 15 offences of making indecent images, one of possessing an extreme pornographic image and one of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

Mr Stephen Parker, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said last October 19 police executed the warrant.

The items seized were sent for forensic examination by the high tech crime unit.

When arrested in December, Ingham exercised his right to silence.

The court also heard that he had previous convictions that included several cases of gross indecency with a child. One sentence dated back to April 2004 when he was jailed.

Mark Stephenson, defending, said: “He knows he is going to spend further time in custody. The question is how long and what will happen to him on his release.

"It is clear that with the best will and intentions, the probation trust will not be, until early next year, in a position to offer him any accommodation, even by a hostel place.

"He will be managed vigorously on his licence and brought into the fold regarding multi agency protection procedure."

Judge Norman Wright told the defendant he should be under no illusion that the offences were serious.

"It helps to feed the market to produce such images. "That means children are sexually abused in a way that is vividly portrayed for the sexual gratification of people such as yourself around the world."

The defendant will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years, banned from working with children and also subject to a sexual offences prevention order for an indefinite period.