A DANGEROUS pervert due to be released from jail within days has lost a bid to have a camera ban overturned.

Child sex offender Daniel Edmunds, 20, took secret photographs of young women's bottoms on his mobile phone for his own gratification and snaps of girls as part of his fantasy world.

He struck just days after being released from prison and posed a very high risk of committing further offences, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Edmunds, who has admitted he is sexually attracted to children and is said to wear children's clothes, is set to be freed next Wednesday.

He was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order in 2004 and it was recently varied so Edmunds was banned from owning, possessing or using photographic equipment of any kind, including mobile phone cameras.

A district judge extended the five year order so it ran indefinitely.

Edmunds, formerly of Lydia Street, Accrington, but now of no fixed address, took the district judge's decision to appeal.

He argued the camera prohibition would mean he would not be able to have a mobile phone to call his family in Scotland and claimed the SOPO should stay at five years as he had not had chance to show he could change his behaviour.

Judge Brian Carter, QC, sitting with two justices, disagreed and threw out his appeal against the new order.

Judge Carter said Edmunds' pattern of behaviour concerned the bench greatly and the varying of the SOPO had been totally proper and acceptable.

He said: "We have to look at the risk of this appellant's likely behaviour and the danger that will pose for young, vulnerable children."

Under the SOPO, Edmunds must also not associate with any child under 16, enter any school premises, playgrounds or parks or loiter outside those places.

David Sandiford, for Lancashire Police, told the court Edmunds had previous convictions for sex assaults on girls of 12 and 10 when he had molested them from behind.

Other "concerning" behaviour included stalking of young girls in Blackburn, explicit text messages and pictures of children, including one in a school uniform.

The SOPO was made in June 2004 and the appellant was sent to custody for three years for going into parks and exposing himself to children.

He was released last December 23 and days later was caught with a mobile phone which contained images of two little girls, aged between six and eight, in a multi media file entitled "Sex".

Edmundson was convicted of conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, but the conviction was quashed after an appeal court was told it was not sustainable in law as the victims did not know and could not have been upset.

However he was recalled to prison on licence and had been in custody six months.