A FATHER-of-six who was caught with indecent pictures of "vulnerable" youngsters has been handed a community order.

Adrian King was convicted by a jury last month of three counts of making indecent images of children on his Hewlett-Packard laptop.

Sentencing at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, Recorder Stephen Hofmeyr QC handed King a 36-month community order with a 40-day rehabilitation and a 60-day programme requirement.

He added: "Viewing and downloading images creates a market that is built on exploiting vulnerable children. "It causes long-term harm to them and their families and it perpetuates the actions of those who produce the images.

"You have exploited vulnerable children for your own gratification, causing untold harm.

"You have also fuelled an industry that lives off this behaviour."

During the trial, jurors heard police raided his Banbury home in April 2014, after receiving information from the National Crime Agency.

Prosecutor Helen Guest told the court during trial: "The defendant had been searching for images of children and the reason the Crown says that is because there was evidence of websites having been accessed.

"During his interview he denied all knowledge of indecent images on the device, he had no idea of how they came to be on there. He was at a complete loss."

King denied the offences when he took the stand, telling the court he was not responsible for downloading the photos and was unaware they were stored on his laptop.

But a jury of nine men and three women unanimously found him guilty of all the crimes after just one hour and 15 minutes deliberating.

Defence barrister Lucy Tapper said the 34-year-old's case had placed an "incredible strain" on his wife of 15 years and his children.

She said he faced "serious repercussions" during the trial, losing his job after employers spotted reports of his trial.

King, of Beaumaris Close, Banbury, was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order.

Recorder Hofmeyr also ordered the forfeiture of the laptop.