A HEYSHAM man who committed sex offences on two young girls has been jailed for two years.

A court heard that Michael Harwood took pictures of his victims without any clothes and the images were laminated onto A4 size paper.

A judge handing down the prison term to the 62-year-old told him: "You acted as some sleazy pornographer would have done towards adult girls."

Harwood, of Osbourne Road, Heysham, had pleaded guilty to 11 charges of taking indecent photographs and three others involving sexual activity with a child.

Mark Ainsworth, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court that the crimes involved two girls under the age of 10 and came to light last December as a result of a natural history TV programme.

The footage included images of two animals starting to have sex.

The girl's father quickly changed channels because of the inappropriate material and the girl happened to comment that she knew about sexual matters.

She disclosed what had happened and matters were reported to the police.

When Harwood was arrested 21 laminated A4 size photographs of the girls in indecent poses were found stored at his home.

A digital camera and computer were also recovered.

One of the girls went on to describe to police how Harwood had asked her to perform a sex act on him. He had also taken photos of her without clothes on, using a camera connected to his computer.

This had included asking her to adopt a particular pose.

In interview, Harwood - who had no previous convictions - said he did not think the photos were indecent at the time.

Robin Kitching, mitigating, told the court "He doesn't seek to justify his actions. He is ashamed and remorseful and wishes, through me, to apologise to the two complainants in the case. It is a genuine apology.

"He is somewhat at a loss to explain why he committed the offences. It has been linked to the death of his third wife and the grief surrounding her death."

Mr Kitching said the defendant - a man who had worked hard all his life - was assessed as a medium risk of re-offending.

Judge Andrew Blake told Harwood that a prison sentence was inevitable.

"You acted as some sleazy pornographer would have done towards adult girls. You will have to live with what you have done for the rest of your life."

Harwood will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.