A JUDGE has warned a St Helens man, who downloaded indecent images of children, that "Big Brother is watching you".

Shaun Burrows's activities came to light after his own internet service provider notified the authorities and his home was raided by police in March 2012.

When officers went into his flat at the Brown Edge Hotel, St Helens, and seized his computers Burrows immediately confessed that he had looked at the indecent images.

He admitted that he was attracted to boys in their late teens and had been sent images by people in chat rooms, most of which he had deleted.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that police were still able to recover 143 indecent images from his hard drives.

Robert Haygarth, defending, said that 40-year-old Burrows was a “broken man”, adding: “It has cost him everything in his life. His relationship terminated with the charge.

“His job has now gone. He’s moved out of the area in order to be closer with his sister. In effect he’s trying to start a new life.”

He added that Burrows has no previous convictions. Burrows had pleaded guilty to five offences of making indecent images and one of possessing them.

The Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, said, “Mr Haygarth has described you as a broken man. That may very well be the case. But you are an intelligent broken man and you know you are largely responsible for for having become a broken man.

“What you need to know and others need to know is that Big Brother is watching you and what you are accessing. They will be caught and anyone who thinks to the contrary is going to be proven wrong.”

He placed Burrows under supervision for three years with attendance on an internet sexual offenders programme.

He also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his internet use and ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years.