A former police officer who ran a controversial swingers club has admitted managing a brothel.

Brian Sheridan ran Hamshaws in Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath, with his wife Caroline.

Plans for a three day fetish festival on the ten-acre site were halted when police stepped in to stop it going ahead in 2006.

Sheridan, 60, and his wife ran the club where swingers met to have sex with each other, often as others watched.

But residents complained about activities there and brought in their own private investigator to infiltrate the club.

Karen Holt, prosecuting, said up to 60 men attended Pandora's Party nights held there every Wednesday night.

The event was run by a prostitute who called herself Pandora, Hove Crown Court heard.

She paid rent for the use of the club to Brian Sheridan and had two other prostitutes working with her.

Miss Holt said private eye Richard Clarke posed as a new member in April 2006 and paid a £150 entrance fee.

Mr Clarke said Pandora and her girls had group and individual sex with clients in the club's games room while other men watched.

On a second visit a month later he saw a leather-clad man and woman build a torture rack in the club's main play area.

The man was put face up on the rack and blindfolded before being whipped and given electric shocks as hot wax was poured on his chest.

Other guests used rooms in the club's 'Wicked Chalet' for sex while being watched by male customers.

Sheridan and his wife, from Cobham, Surrey, were arrested and denied managing a brothel between November 2005 and June 2006.

Sheridan changed his plea to guilty before his trial was due to start.

The prosecution offered no evidence against Mrs Sheridan who was found not guilty on the direction of the judge.

Brian Tetler, defending, said Sheridan is a former police officer who had no previous convictions.

Mr Tetler added: "This was effectively a club run within a club.

"Pandora paid rent for the use of the premises which for the rest of the week was run as a swingers club.

"The majority of the profits from the night went to Pandora."

Judge Cedric Joseph said he will almost certainly give Sheridan a ten-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

However, he adjourned sentence until August 11 so that a decision can be taken on how much unpaid community work Sheridan must do.

The court heard that Sheridan has been made bankrupt since the club shut down and plans to convert it into a nursing home fell through.

The Argus revealed in 2006 how police stopped the three-day Festival of Bliss from going ahead after complaints from local residents.

Around 350 couples from all over Britain were due to attend the event at the former Brighton Sun Club naturists venue in Sloop Lane, Scaynes Hill.

Events planned included a 'Moulin Rude' ball and orgies in a jacuzzi big enough to hold 36 people.

Residents said at the time they were relieved that the festival had been halted.

David Whitome said: "This is the worst kind of event they could have held at the club.

"We are delighted that the police acted as they did to stop it."

PC Mark Dennett-Thorpe, who led the investigation, said: "I am satisfied with the outcome.

"The evidence against Sheridan was so overwhelming that he had no option but to plead guilty."