VIEWERS of popular TV quiz Fifteen-to-One saw a fourteen-to-one version after a convicted East Lancashire paedophile was blacked out of the programme.

The 42-year-old former teacher, of Burnley, would have appeared on Monday's show when he won his heat and scored enough points to win a place in the grand final which was shown at 3.50pm yesterday.

He was carefully edited out of last night's show and only a silhouette could be seen of him after he went out in the first round.

When the Lancashire Evening Telegraph contacted programme broadcasters Channel 4 to tell them one of their winners was a convicted child sex offender, the controllers first considered re-staging the whole final.

But after an emergency meeting they decided to scrap the edition in which the former teacher won and replace it with a repeat.

They then edited him out of the grand final. A court order, made when the man appeared before Preston Crown Court in 1994, forbids him being identified.

He was convicted of four sex assaults on girl pupils and was jailed for two years.

Sentencing him Judge Reginald Lockett said: "These were offences committed on you children and that is an aggravating feature.

"You were in a position of trust."

Broadcast Minister Janet Anderson and Burnley MP Peter Pike have called for a tightening of vetting procedures used by TV companies.

Channel 4 spokesman Alan McLaughlin said there was no policy in place to ensure contestants reveal if they have any criminal convictions, but this was now under review.

The contestant refused to speak about his TV appearance. And his father answered the door at a terraced house where he lives and said: "We don't want nothing in about it. There's been enough trouble."

The grand final will be repeated on Channel 4 on Christmas Day at 4pm.