Ian Parry (47), of Pennine Road, Bacup, admitted making phone calls to victims across East Lancashire and Manchester after being charged with 10 counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He admitted seven charges at an earlier hearing and an eighth on Monday. Two more charges were ordered to lie on file. Parry will be sentenced on October 2nd.

In September 2006, Burnley police received a report from a woman saying she had been contacted by a man who engaged her in conversation before threatening to rape her.

Police in Lancashire and Greater Manchester then received 105 similar complaints from victims across East Lancashire and North Manchester who had been subjected to threatening, humiliating and obscene phone calls.

Parry used public phone boxes and told his victims they could win money if they went along with his demands. If they did not, he threatened them.

Officers worked closely with BT and used the latest surveillance technology to track Parry down. He was arrested in a public phone box in Rochdale while making an indecent call last August.

Chief Insp. Jeff Brown said: "It has become clear Parry gains sexual gratification from humiliating, threatening and dominating his victims while on the phone. He subjects them to a barrage of obscene threats and is indiscriminate in his targeting of people whether they are children, adults or elderly people."

A spokesman for BT said: "In terms of the number of calls made, the number of victims, the number of repeat calls to victims and the severe, obscene and threatening nature of the content of the calls, this is certainly one of the worst cases of its kind BT has ever been involved in."