A PAEDOPHILE trawled the streets of Bolton to pick up vice girls he wanted to dress as schoolgirls.

Paul Hennessey took photographs of the prostitutes wearing a school uniform, some of which police later found stashed in his car.

He sold them - as well as pictures of under-age naked teenagers - on internet auction site eBay.

The father-of-two from Warrington used the nickname "Crackpot Porn" to sell the pictures of naked under-age girls.

The maintenance supervisor admitted 13 charges of making indecent images of under-age girls, two of distributing them and two of causing them to be published or advertised when he apeared at Warrington Crown Court. He was given a suspended sentence.

At the time of his arrest, he claimed the pictures, which were seized from his company laptop and lock up garage, were of women aged over 18 but he later admitted to detectives they were of girls under 16.

Police found some pictures the 37-year-old had taken himself and others he had bought.

The court also heard that police seized a schoolgirl's uniform from his car which had been used for pictures of prostitutes in Bolton, Manchester and Liverpool.

John Hedgcoe, prosecuting, also said Hennessey had tried to search for items such as Lolita, underage escorts and teen prostitutes on his computer.

Andrew Downing, defending, said the offences, which date back to 2005, had happened when he was stressed at work and was taking amphetamines.

He added that Hennessey, of Hood Lane North, Warington, had now apologised for his actions and had suffered enough punishment as his family received threats after the charges were first made public.

He has now found another job.

Judge Dafydd Jones said only the support of his family saved him from jail.

He added: "The fact that people who own these images do not come into contact with the children concerned doesn't detract from the seriousness because these children are almost inevitably in danger or abused.

"Any time someone views these images, that abuse is made worse.

"You were part of that circle of abuse even though you were not at the centre.

"You are very fortunate that you have the family that you do."

He was given a four month suspended sentence, ordered to sign the sex offenders' register, told to pay £550 prosecution costs and will be monitored by the Probation Service for two years and sent on a sex offender's course.