A MAN who viewed indecent pictures of children has been sentenced by a judge - despite police being unable to recover any of the illegal images he downloaded.

Samuel Blackburn's criminal conduct came to light after a Lake District address was visited by police in October. Officers discovered "highly suggestive" search terms on 27-year-old Blackburn's computer which indicated he sought out images of girls as young as eight.

Carlisle Crown Court heard he deleted the videos "virtually as they were viewed", using software programmes to wipe clean his hard drive.

Blackburn immediately confessed to his crimes when police traced an IP address he had attempted to disguise to Bowness.

Blackburn told officers he had been addicted to viewing images of girls aged 12 since he was the same age, and had tried - without success - to stop it.

He was sentenced today having admitted charges of making indecent images, and possessing both ecstasy and cannabis.
Judge James Adkin imposed a three-year community order through which Blackburn, now of Bere Regis, Dorset, must attend an intensive sex offender treatment course. 

In addition, he was made subject to the terms of a sexual harm prevention order for five years.