A MAN who downloaded indecent images of children was ordered by a judge to rehabilitate in the community with the support of his friends.

Jamie Morrison of Simon House, Paradise Street, Oxford, admitted making 54 images found on a USB stick in April.

Judge Peter Ross postponed sentencing him then in order to get more information from the probation service about how his offending could be managed in the community.

Yesterday, 25-year-old Morrison was back at Oxford Crown Court.

Judge Ross told him: “Those who offend in the way you have offended encourage the abuse of children.

“All over the world there are children who are abused in the most horrific ways, that abuse being photographed or filmed then being distributed to the likes of you. It has to be stamped out.”

He went on: “All the evidence I have read in probation service reports indicated you are engaging with the various services.

“You have a great deal of support available to you and you are making use of that.

“You have also got the support of a circle of friends outside my order and I encourage you to continue to use it because clearly you need to be integrated into the wider community of people who are law-abiding and behaving normally.”

He handed Morrison a three-year community sentence, which means he will have to be supervised by the probation service for three years and will have to complete a 76-day Thames Valley Sexual Offending Treatment Programme.

He was also put on the Sex Offenders Register and ordered to pay a £60 victim surcharge.