A HIGH-RISK sex offender with a 'sordid interest in the sexual abuse of young boys' has avoided prison.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Richard Lovett, 28, was jailed for 10 months in October after officers from the police's sex offender management team visited his his former home in Hudson Street, Burnley, in June and found an Acer laptop containing hundreds of indecent images of children.

That put Lovett, who now lives in a probation service-approved property in Blackburn, in breach of a sexual harm prevention order in 2014 by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court. That was in relation to child pornography found on his computer.

During Lovett's latest court appearance prosecutor Emma Kehoe said Lovett had further breached that 2014 order by failing to notify the police of a prepaid Mastercard in the name of Richard Wayne, failing to register a Acer laptop, HP laptop and a 32GB micro SD card with his police offender manager, as well as failing to make the HP laptop and micro SD card available for inspection.

Ms Kehoe said the HP laptop was found hidden within a sofa.

Lovett was prosecuted in October for the sexual harm prevention order breaches and for making and possessing indecent images found on the Acer laptop but at that point police had not examined the HP laptop.

When they did they found two category A and one category C indecent image of children and 65 prohibited images of children.

That meant Lovett found himself back before the courts charged with two counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing prohibited images of children. He pleaded guilty to all three offences.

Judge Sara Dodd had planned to adjourn the case for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, but a probation officer gave an oral report during the hearing in which he described Lovett as 'posing a high risk to children'.

Judge Dodd said: "Mr Lovett I have no doubt that had these images been before the court at the same time you were dealt with in October your sentence would have been somewhat longer. But I don't know exactly how long that additional time would have been.

"The decision I have to consider today is whether I send you back to custody for a relatively short period of time or to take the advice of the probation service who believe the only way to get you to move away from your sordid interest in the sexual abuse of young boys is to impose a community order with up to 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days. That is the order I make. It will be a three-year community order."

Lovett, who is already subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, was told to sign to sex offenders' register for a further five years.