A flasher struck in front of frightened young college students over more than two months and made sexual gestures towards them, a court was told.

Pervert Brian Bleasdale, 55, who had teddy bears in the window of his Accrington home, had a long list of convictions for sex offences going back 40 years.

The defendant, said to have learning difficulties, was spared jail at Burnley Crown Court.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Byrne said his case was "a social problem as much as a criminal problem."

The judge had told the court he was not going to send Bleasdale to custody, but he initially said he was perplexed about what to do.

The defendant, of St Leger Court, Accrington, admitted two counts of exposure, said to represent a course of conduct, between September 30 and December 1 last year.

He was given a two year community order with two years supervision.

Bleasdale was banned from working with children and was put on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years.

Sarah Johnson, prosecuting, said the defendant then lived at Limefield Street and a 17-year-old victim and her three friends would pass his home on their way to college.

In September the teenager became aware of Bleasdale knocking on his house window as if trying to get their attention.

He had teddy bears in the window. The defendant exposed himself and afterwards would bang on the window most mornings when the girls were walking to college.

Miss Johnson said the defendant went on to expose himself on a number of occasions and would make sexual signs towards the girls as well as gestures with his tongue.

The prosecutor said the young women contacted police.

They felt intimidated and scared by Bleasdale's behaviour and changed their route to college.

Miss Johnson said when the defendant was interviewed, he denied the offences in a prepared statement, and made no comment afterwards.

She added Bleasdale had 59 previous convictions, including for exposure, indecent assault and gross indecency, dating back to 1966.

Martin Hackett, defending, said a psyhiciatric report concluded Bleasdale was not mentally ill, but had learning problems.