A MAN who downloaded child porn from the internet has been banned from having any unsupervised contact with youngsters under 18.

Burnley Magistrates yesterday heard how Michael Slater, 33, had 170 obscene images on his computers when police raided his Barnoldswick home.

He told officers he had taken the pictures from the internet, dating back over a 12-month period. out of curiosity, was interested in looking at pictures of young girls and found the images arousing.

The defendant, of Skipton Road, Burnley, admitted five specimen charges of possessing indecent photos of children.

He was given a three-year community rehabilitation order, to include a community sex offenders' programme.

Slater was told he must live where directed by his supervising officer. He must not have any contact with children under 18 without the permission of his supervising officer and the Social Services.

Slater was also ordered not to take part in any paid or voluntary work with children under 18 without the permission of his supervising officer.

The defendant was also put on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years and must pay £70 costs. The magistrates ordered forfeiture of his computer equipment.

Joanne Shahzada, prosecuting, told the court the defendant was arrested under Operation Nickel.

That arose out of national police operation Operation Ore, which targeted people downloading pay-to-view child porn.

His home was searched in May and two computers were seized. Of the 170 pictures found, 147 were of level one, the least serious category and 20 were at level two.

Slater said he had paid to look four or five times. He refused to give police the password to his files.

Miss Shahzada said when the defendant was questioned a second time, he claimed he looked at the pictures out of curiosity. Slater had no previous convictions.

Graeme Tindall, defending, said Slater pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

If his computers were seized, they would be a substantial loss to him, as he had spent quite a lot of money on them.