A PENSIONER with a 'sick fantasy' of gazing at abused youngsters has been sentenced to a community order.

Clive Keep was caught with more than 3,500 indecent images and 30 'obscene' cartoons of children when police swooped on his home.

The paedophile was detected after masquerading as another man online, telling a mother he wanted to abuse her children she had 'offered' to him.

Sentencing the 72-year-old on Thursday, Judge Ian Pringle QC handed Keep a two-year community order, with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

The judge added: "By having these images, you are creating a market and that market will damage, often very young, children."

Police monitoring online conversations, discovered a fake 'Dave Morgan' account was speaking to a chat room user, who had offered her children to him for sexual activities.

This account, whose email address was linked to Keep, told the woman 'what he would like to do' to the youngsters, prosecutor Cathy Olliver said.

Officers then scoured Keep's Abingdon home after executing a search warrant, seizing two laptops on June 19, 2015, the court was told.

Keep installed an 'evidence eliminator', designed to rid his computers of its search history and other items hunted by police, and also used a drop box during his offending.

Some of the indecent images, which were of babies and children up to 14, were stored on an external drive which was never found.

Keep, who must sign the sex offenders register, confessed to officers he disguised himself online, and claimed he had no sexual interest in youngsters but it had been a fantasy of his.

Defence barrister Lucy Ffrench said Keep, who must sign the sex offenders register and pay a victim surcharge, considers sexual activity with children 'abhorrent'.

His offending has had a 'very significant impact' on him and his wife, who have been restricted from seeing their young grandson.

Keep, who suffers from bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma, led a 'blameless' life working in the nuclear industry, the barrister added.

Ms Ffrench went onto say the sex offender, who claimed he has a 'zero-risk' of re-offending, would never have physically harmed children.

Keep, who had no previous convictions, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possession of prohibited images of a child.

Judge Pringle also made Keep, of Virginia Way, Abingdon, subject to a sexual harm prevention order, and ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the laptops.