POLICE found 50,000 porn pictures, some showing naked children being abused, when they raided a father of two's home and seized his computer, a court heard.

Burnley Magistrates were told how Nicholas Thomas Varela, 50, had 5,000 images of naked youngsters among the haul, some depicting the most serious level of abuse, and had posted some on the internet.

Varela, who has never been in trouble before, admitted 13 allegations of making an indecent photograph or pseudo photo of a child and four of distributing an indecent photo of a child.

The defendant, a married man, of Manchester Road, Burnley, was committed on bail to the town's crown court for sentence, after the bench decided their powers of punishment were not sufficient. His case will be heard on May 23.

Mercedah Jabbari, prosecuting, told the court police received information that the indecent images of children were being downloaded via a screen name known as Badlands.

The name was traced to Varela and officers carried out a search warrant and took his computer.

They sent it to the high tech crime unit who recovered 50,000 deleted images from the hard drive.

Most of the pictures were adult porn but many were borderline adult/teenager.

Miss Jabbari said there were 5,000 images of naked children from level one, the least serious, to level five, which showed children being abused.

The defendant was interviewed and arrested and said he had had his computer for six years.

He was shown a sample of the pictures and he admitted they were his.

He also admitted posting images on the internet. He had no previous convictions.

Geoff Ireland, defending, said Varela was arrested last October and was charged on March 19.

At the time he had viewed the images, he had been going through a very difficult and painful time.

His marriage had been going through a rocky patch.

After his computer was seized he knew what the outcome was going to be, faced a bad period of depression and tried to take his own life.

He and his wife were now close again and he had had some counselling.

Mr Ireland said when the defendant was arrested the police kept him in custody for his own protection because of the attempt on his life although that had been 12 months before.

The solicitor said: "That was a salutory experience for him.

"He has entered guilty pleas to all offences and has had to face up to his family.

"He is a married man with two teenage children. The children are aware of this and they have had to face up to it."

Mr Ireland added Varela's wife, who had worked locally as a receptionist, resigned when the case was mentioned in the local press.

He added: "This has caused a great deal of distress in the family."