A PADIHAM man who became transfixed with the ongoing police investigations into celebrity child abuse cases was caught with indecent images on his computer, a court heard.

Clive Larkin, 65, insisted to police, when interviewed after his arrest, that he got no sexual gratification from looking at the child pornography found on his laptop, Burnley Crown Court was told.

But prosecutor David Clark said it was apparent that he had visited suspect sites on a number of occasions and had viewed the indecent material on more than a few occasions.

And when his laptop was examined, specialist police investigators found several search terms, including references to ‘Lolita’ sites and requests for ‘child erotica’, the court heard.

“The defendant stated that he had been looking at the images but he had done so out of curiosity because of recent press coverage about celebrities who have been caught in that sort of offending,” said Mr Clark.

Larkin, of Malvern Avenue, pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images and one charge of possession of indecent photos.

Judge Jonathan Gibson sentenced him to a six-month jail term, suspended for two years. He will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order to restrict his internet usage.

Larkin will be under probation supervision for two years and must sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

Mr Clark said that police executed a search warrant at the defendant’s home, as the result of an intelligence report, on January 7.

He had been identified as a potential suspect as the result of a nationwide probe into indecent images, which resulted in several arrests being made across the county in December and January.

The youngsters depicted in the obscene imagery were aged as young as eight, nine or 10, the court heard.

Six still images at the most serious category were found, with nine images at the second-most serious level and 29 showing children in sexual poses. One video was also recovered. The images had been deleted but were recovered by police technical experts.

Larkin was said to have several old previous convictions but nothing in the same brackets as the present offences.