A UNIVERSITY lab technician caught with more than 1,000 indecent images of children has been handed a community penalty.

Pervert Fernando Rabaneda, of Westlands Drive, Oxford, appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday to enter guilty pleas to three counts of making indecent images and one of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

The court heard as he was sentenced how police first became aware of the images after raiding the 47-year old’s home in August 2017.

They seized a HP computer which on analysis was found to contain 1,108 images of category C, the lowest category of offending, five in category B and four in category A - the most serious category.

He also had three prohibited images of children.

Investigators said that the images ranged from children aged as young as four years old and were mostly of girls aged between eight and 12.

Search terms were also found on his computer including ‘pre-teen models’.

In mitigation at the hearing his defence barrister Lucy Ffrench said that her client had become addicted to adult pornography before falling into a habit of searching for indecent images.

She added that it was the laboratory technicians’ ‘loneliness and isolation’ that had fuelled his offending.

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb said: “You understand the devastating impact of sexual abuse and the victims of sexual abuse.

“Each one of these children shown in the images is a victim of sexual abuse. People like you who look at this material do create a market and a demand.”

Rabaneda, whose Facebook accounts lists that he works for Oxford University, was handed a community order for 18 months to include rehabilitation activity requirement for 30 days and unpaid work for 100 hours.

He must also pay court costs of £535, be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and sign the sex offenders register for five years.