A FOOTBALL coach secretly filmed young girls as they were getting washed and changed.

Ian Nickson had worked in the sport for a long time and had roles at both Bolton Wanderers and Bury.

But Manchester Crown Court heard he used his role at Walkden Junior Football Club to film two young girls.

A girl, who was 12 at the time, noticed his iPhone in a bathroom, propped up by a shampoo bottle and facing towards her, while she was taking a bath.

After 59-year-old Nickson was arrested it emerged he had also filmed the same girl on an earlier occasion, but had not been spotted.

His perverted behaviour was discovered when he filmed another girl, aged 11, getting changed.

Nickson told the girl's family that he needed to film a promotional video for the club and that she had to be wearing a club top.

David Lees, prosecuting, told the court that he used this as an excuse to take the girl to his home. But whilst there the girl noticed an iPad on the floor in the room he had told her to get changed in.

She informed her family and Nickson was reported to the police.

Nickson, of Burrs Road, Little Hulton, admitted three counts of voyeurism.

In a victim statement read out in court the girl's mother said: "It is every mother’s nightmare for the police to knock on the door and to show you a picture to identify her as the victim of a crime.”

She added that the girl has not coped well with what happened.

“Her mental health has deteriorated and she has started self-harming and has suicidal thoughts," stated the mum.

Mark Friend, defending, said Nickson had lost his good character and has been shunned by the community since his offending came to light.

He said: “There has been significant community opprobrium. That, in and of itself has taken its toll on him.”

He added that Nickson has been assessed as being at low risk of causing future harm and that he “requires rehabilitation and punishment” which could be offered by a suspended sentence.

But Judge Suzanne Goddard QC said the age of the two girls and the fact there were three separate occasions of filming meant the case is so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.

She jailed Nickson for nine months and he was placed on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.