A man caught with indecent child images on his mobile phones claimed he inadvertently received them through his interest in cross dressing.

Police found 305 images on phones owned by cricket club security guard John Thomas Embleton.

One phone was recovered from his home at Riverside Cottages, alongside Durham County Cricket Club's ground, in Chester-le-Street, in November last year.

A second, also containing offending material, was found in Embleton's work locker.

When interviewed he claimed he received lots of material on his mobile phone and deleted much of it, but some of the people he was in text correspondence must have also sent him indecent images.

Paul Lee, prosecuting, told Durham Crown Court that although most of the offending images were in the lowest category of severity, 25 were considered to be in the second most serious level.

Embleton, 41, now of no fixed address, previously admitted 16 counts of making, plus one of possessing, indecent images of a child.

Tony Davis, mitigating, said Embleton's "proclivity of sexual interest" was in cross dressing.

He registered with a website 'Hot or Not', but had to pass on his mobile phone number to enable like-minded people to contact him.

Mr Davis said, however, this left him, "hostage to circumstances" and prone to 'blue-jacking" in which indecent child images were also sent to his phone.

But he said Embleton claimed to be more interested in older girls.

Mr Davis added that the offence has "ruined" Embleton's life, causing him to lose his job, his home, his family and left him on the verge of bankruptcy.

Judge Michael Cartlidge said he believed Embleton was "in denial" of having an interest in material featuring under-age girls.

Having heard that Embleton spent 33 days in custody after making his admissions, Judge Cartlidge imposed a two-year community order during which he must undergo probation supervision, including attending a sex offender treatment programme.

He must also sign the Sex Offenders' Register for five years and live at an address approved by the Probation Service.