A BT subcontractor was found with over 1,200 indecent images of children after police raided his home.

Officers executed a warrant at Hadrian Livesey’s house on Malham Avenue in Accrington on April 24 last year.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Livesey told officers ‘I might have downloaded that sort of image’ but when later interviewed twice by police refused to say what was on the computers.

Livesey, 44, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images and one count each of possessing extreme pornography and possessing a prohibited image of a child.

He was given a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with supervision, ordered to pay £535 costs and was also given a sexual harm prevention order and made subject to police notification requirements, each for seven years.

Lisa Worsley, prosecuting, told the court how the images included 32 considered category A – the most serious – along with 46 category B and 1,181 category C images.

Officers also found another 222 extreme pornographic images and two prohibited child images.

Darren Lee-Smith, defending, said Livesey went into a ‘period of lowness and depression’ following his parents’ deaths.

He told the court: “He was of previous good character and that character is now blemished through no fault of anyone other than the defendant because of his behaviour

“Perhaps the most important piece of mitigation is his early guilty plea with a basis and no attempt to minimise his behaviour.

“He recognises he needs assistance regarding these offences.

“More importantly there’s a recognition within the pre-sentence report as to the destruction of lives these offences can create and the suffering of the children within those images.

“The defendant’s explanation as to how he engaged in these activities was a period of lowness and depression which to an extent has been alleviated.

“It is linked to the unfortunate death of his mother and father.

“He lost contact with his father for a number of years, regained that contact, but unfortunately his father passed away.”

Mr Lee-Smith said Livesey was working as a subcontractor for BT but has since lost his job.