A PAEDOPHILE claimed he illegally deleted the internet history on his laptop and phone because he did not want his wife to discover he had been viewing adult porn.

In 2016 businessman Andrew Matthews was given a suspended prison sentence and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order which included a ban on removing the browsing history from internet-enabled devices.

He had pleaded guilty to downloading several indecent explicit images of children.

But Bolton Crown Court heard how, when police from the from the sex offender management unit made a routine visit to his Beechcroft Drive, Breightmet, home on October 6 last year they discovered that 59-year-old Matthews had deleted the the browsing history from an iPhone 10 and an Apple Macbook.

Eleanor Gleeson, prosecuting, said Matthews claimed he was about to sell the iPhone and so had wiped its history.

A Macbook, which Matthews said he had bought a week earlier, had also had its history removed.

Matthews admitted breaching the terms of his sexual harm prevention order when interviewed by police.

"The defendant stated that he had viewed pornography on his laptop. He deleted the internet history so his wife could not see what he had been looking at online," said Miss Gleeson.

"The defendant admitted that he was aware of the sexual harm prevention order and ignored the rules about deleting the history."

Colin Buckle, defending, said Matthews accepts they were deliberate breaches.

Recorder Ciaran Rankin was handed character references from Matthews' business partner and wife.

"She says you are not a bad man, you are thoughtless," he said.

Sentencing Matthews to six months in prison, suspended for two years, Recorder Rankin told him that it was only his guilty plea that saved him from going to jail immediately.

"You are 59 years of age and really should know better having been caught once, carrying on and breaching what is a very serious court order," he said.

Matthews was ordered to undertake 150 hours of unpaid work, must participate in 25 days of rehabilitation activities and pay £340 towards prosecution costs.