A betting shop manager downloaded videos of young children being abused by adults, a court heard.

James Andrew Edwards was arrested after police executed a warrant under the Protection of Children Act at his home on Petre Crescent in Rishton.

Burnley Crown Court heard how 14 videos - including nine of the top category A - were found in the recycle bin on his computer and included footage of children aged ‘from teens down to about five years old’ being abused by adults with one featuring a young baby.

Edwards, 28, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of making indecent images of children.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said officers executed the warrant on June 11 last year and when confronted by police Edwards said: “I download a lot over the internet. There’s stuff on my computer in my recycle bin. I didn’t do it intentionally.”

Mr Parker told the court: “His explanation was that he was trying to look for a particular porn video that he had seen years ago.

“He couldn’t remember the name of it and so had been searching for it in the various tags since then that he remembered from the original clip.

“[The search terms] did return some child pornography but that had not been his intention of his search.

“If he saw stuff that had child porn on it and ended up looking at it then he got rid of it by putting it into the recycling bin of his computer.

"He said it was not his intention to keep those videos. He said he had been looking at pornography nearly every day and he was interested in general hardcore and rough porn.

“He maintained he didn’t get any sexual gratification by the images of children.”

James Heyworth, defending, said Edwards, who has worked as a betting shop manager for more than four years, deserved full credit for his early guilty plea and is of ‘previous good character’.

He said: “He spent a lot of time on the internet with legitimate porn, downloaded files and found oneself ultimately crossing the line. He has had to accept that and the shame that goes with it.

“It’s a sad day for his parents and supportive family to see him in the dock. He comes from a good family and is well thought of within his family and friends.”

Judge Beverley Lunt told Edwards he had a ‘serious problem’.

She warned him because he had a ‘sick interest in the type of pornography he was searching for in the first place’ he needed ‘professional’ help to stop him re-offending.

Sentencing, she said: “It’s not to your credit that you say you came across these images when looking for particularly unpleasant pornographic sites and videos yourself.

“To those who didn’t know what you were doing in private, you were a respectable man, son, brother and friend.

“You are a working man but you are exposed now and that can’t be ignored as being part of your punishment.

“You seriously have a problem here and I truly believe that without professional help the evidence suggests that you may re-offend in this manner again.”

He was given a three-year community order with a supervision requirement, ordered to attend the internet sex offenders treatment programme, given a five-year sexual harm prevention order and made subject to police notification requirements for five years.