A PAEDOPHILE said by police to be a danger to children has been banned from being alone with children under 16.

Ex-convict Peter Frederick Hernon, 57, was made the subject of an interim Sexual Offences Prevention Order by a district judge at Burnley Magistrates Court.

Hernon, who was "hounded" out of Clitheroe in 1999 when pamphlets were distributed about his activities, has served time behind bars for sex offences against children.

He moved to Burnley from Nelson four months ago, and is now banned from deliberately associating with or having any deliberate contact with any child under 16, except in the presence of their parent or guardian.

This excludes occasions with "genuine reasons", such as on public transport or in shops. Hernon was also told not to take, capture or possess any photo, pseudo photo or recorded image of any child under 16, except those which appear in newspapers, or a magazine of a title notified to two police officers within three days of the order.

The interim order runs until December 31. The judge has ordered Hernon's address should not be published in the Press.

The court had earlier been told how police alleged Hernon had been inviting children into his home and giving them drink. Hernon had set up home in a residential area described as a "natural playground for children."

Hernon, who has formerly lived in Nelson and Clitheroe, is on the Sex Offenders' Register for life after being convicted of molesting children at Manchester Crown Court in August, 1988.

His conduct since moving to Burnley, according to the solicitor for Lancashire Constabulary, was said to have frightened and upset children, to have given them nightmares and to have prompted complaints from parents. Hernon was, said the police, in denial over his past offending, mixed with other paedophiles and ran legal surgeries.

Hernon claimed he could assure the court he was no threat to children. He insisted the allegations made against him in Burnley were "hopelessly flawed", that he was the victim of mistaken identity and that rubbish had been invented about him.

Earlier this week Niamh Noone, solicitor for the police, had urged the court to make an interim order. She said the local school holidays had just started and that a short interim order was needed to allow " a period of safety for the community" and to give them protection.

A court hearing in 1999 had been told how Hernon had moved around hotels and pubs in Clitheroe and had been "hounded" out of the town because of his background.

He had had difficulties with accommodation since his release from prison and pamphlets had been distributed in Clitheroe branding him a sex offender.