A man who used a credit card to access child pornography on the Internet has been given a three-year community rehabilitation order.

Keith Eltham, 46, of Kingfishers, Grove, near Wantage, downloaded 1,137 child porn images to his computer.

The offences came to light as a result of the FBI's investigation of people paying to view American websites.

Nick Syfret, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said babies and children aged three and four were among the victims portrayed in the images.

Eltham admitted 16 counts of making indecent photographs of children and one of possessing such pictures.

Andrew Pote, defending, said he had no previous convictions and excellent character references.

Mr Pote added: "There's no evidence that he distributed them or showed them to anyone else.

"He tried to delete some but they remained on his hard drive."

Judge Bruce McIntyre told Eltham he would have been jailed if the offences had been committed after January 2001, when Parliament increased the sentencing tariffs.

"Somebody like you is promoting the industry which leads to the sexual abuse of children," the judge said.

Eltham was ordered to attend a sex offenders' course run by the Thames Valley Project.