A CONVICTED sex offender from East Lancashire who tried to use the 'incognito' mode on his phone web browser but was caught out by police has been jailed for eight months.

Stephen Lewis Hutchinson, 43, claimed his partner had been responsible for using the phone, after he gave it to her, Burnley Crown Court heard.

But police public protection officers obtained a statement from the woman, in which she insisted she had only used the device to access Facebook, the court was told.

Hutchinson, who is originally from Bacup, but has also lived in Yorkshire Street, Burnley, has been the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for a number of years.

He was convicted of attempted rape and indecent assault of a child in 2005 and jailed for seven years.

Prosecutor Stephen Parker said that in the current case, his partner denied ever using the Google Chrome application on the phone.

Hutchinson pleaded guilty to breach of a sexual harm protection order and was sentenced by Judge Sara Dodd.

He has also appeared in court previously for breaching the same order.

Last November he was given an 11-month prison sentence after police caught him with a phone with internet capability, which he was prohibited from holding.

A further search of his property found no fewer than 15 other items which were capable of accessing the internet or storing images.

Earlier in the same year, when he was living in Rawtenstall, he had also been caught with images containing extreme pornography.

He had also made internet searches for 'rape'. He was given a suspended sentence.

Neil Ronan, defending, said that his client, who had entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity, had showed "remorse and contrition" for his most recent offending.

Mr Ronan told the court that the defendant had volunteered the phone himself, when the police called around.

He said that there was considerable evidence on the phone of searches for what could be regarded as 'normal' porn but no suggestion of "anything improper". He had accepted using the application's incognito mode at the time.