A paedophile from Didcot caught looking at children on a beach through his camera has been given a three-year community supervision order.

Ian Davidson, of Tamar Way, Ladygrove, aroused suspicion when he was spotted pointing his camera at children playing on a beach in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Beach rangers called police, who arrested him in August 2005.

He told officers he had taken out the memory card in the digital camera, but admitted looking at children through the lens. Police who searched his house found two indecent images of a young girl in a bikini.

Davidson, 47, pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent photographs of a child between January 1999 and August 2005 and was given the community supervision order at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday.

The design engineer was ordered to attend a sex offenders' programme and was banned indefinitely from working with children. He was also banned from owning, using or possessing a camera, mobile phone or any other device capable of taking pictures or of possessing any photographs of children and was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years.