An engineer who used secret cameras to spy on women and had more than 200 child pornography images has avoided jail.            

Leon Coleman, of Lime Street, Accrington, pleaded guilty at Burnley Crown Court to four counts of voyeurism and five counts of possessing indecent images of children.            

 Mark Lamberty, prosecuting, said police discovered 51 ‘voyeuristic images’ and nine video clips of the women, along with another 220 images of children, on two computers. Adrian Williams, defending, told the court how Coleman was ‘an intelligent man and genuinely remorseful’.            

He said: “He was extremely candid with the police. His behaviour is disturbing and borne out of his own sexual gratification and sexual problems.            

"He accepts he has a problem. He may lose his employment. He’s lost his family.”            

Coleman, 29, was given a three-year community order with a supervision requirement and ordered to attend a core sex offenders treatment programme. He was also given a fiveyear sexual offences prevention order.            

Judge Beverley Lunt told the court it was a ‘ stark decision’ whether to impose a jail term.            

She said: “A community order would mean the probation service would be working with you in a very intensive way on your perversions and problems.            

“ That, it seems to me, is the more difficult sentence for you and is the better protection for the public as a whole.”