A pensioner who accessed child porn on the internet has been given three years' community rehabilitation.

Arthur Page was on the sex offenders register at the time, having earlier been jailed for charges including indecently assaulting a young girl.

A judge passing sentence on the 73-year-old for the latest crimes told him: "You clearly have something of a fascination for young girls."

Page, of Tower Road, Blackburn, was appearing at Preston Crown Court for sentence, having pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent photographs of a child.

Hilary Banks, prosecuting, said that police executed a search warrant at the defendant's home, under the Protection Of Children Act, last December. Page was already on the sex offenders register at that time.

His computer equipment was seized and sent off for inspection.

Then in June this year, Page was arrested of suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.

He declined to answer police questions, but handed over a prepared statement in which he said: "I accept I have inadvertently and only for a very short time viewed the images. It happened a long time ago when I visited a bulletin board site.

"The name was innocuous and gave no indication of the content."

The defendant had gone on to say he had never printed off images or put them on to disc. The Crown told the court it understood that the defendant had been accessing adult porn sites at the relevant time.

In 2001 Page was given 18 months in prison for offences including indecently assaulting a young girl. On that occasion he was also dealt with for possessing indecent photographs.

He will be on the Sex Offenders Register until 2011.

John Jackson, defending, said Page had inadvertently accessed child porn images.