A paedophile’s vast stash of indecent images was discovered when he returned his laptop to a shop in August 2019.

Marian Burlan, 58, had a vile child sex abuse image saved as his screensaver, alerting technicians at eFix Computers that there may be other material on the laptop.

Another engineer checked the deleted images folder and saw a video of a girl he thought was roughly 10-years-old.

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Prosecutor Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said Burlan’s other devices were seized together with notepads that listed websites where indecent images could be found.

Police found evidence the images had been accessed since 2008, although the former merchant sailor had only come to the UK from Romania in 2018 in search of better pay.

In total, he had around 1,100 images and videos in the very worst category, including one that showed the sezual assault of a child estimated to be three to five years old.

There were 46,000 images and videos in category C and 588 in category B.

Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said some of the children were in obvious distress. The youngest children in the images were thought to be aged between two and four.

A further 33,832 image and video files were found on the devices but not categorised by the specialist officers.

Interviewed by the police, Burlan admitted what he had done and said he had looked at sexually-explicit images of adults, children and animals.

Sentencing him at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, Judge Maria Lamb said: “The author of this pre-sentence report says that the exploitation and abuse of children undertaken to gratify individuals – individuals like you - who are often able to detach themselves from ownership of the criminal actions that are directly carried out against those children is a deeply destructive and utterly callous process. I agree wholeheartedly with what the probation officer says about that.

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“In fairness to you, it does appear from what was said to the probation officer during the course of your interview with him that you have a realisation of the gravity of your offending.”

However, she said she was ‘just persuaded’ there was a realistic prospect of Burlan being rehabilitated.

Judge Lamb sentenced him to 16 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years with a requirement he complete up to 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He must abide by a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and sign on as a sex offender for a decade. The judge ordered he pay £425 in costs.

His barrister, Gordana Austin, said her client had spent 25 years in the merchant navy before coming to the UK in 2018. He had worked in various porter roles and odd-jobs. He suffered from a number of health issues.

Burlan, of Main Road, Long Hanborough, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of indecent images of children.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward