A former senior Oxford radiographer and university researcher admitted possessing drugs found at her Witney home -- but said they belonged to her son.

Catherine Westbrook, 44, former deputy superintendent radiographer at Oxford MRI Centre, based at the Churchill Hospital, pleaded guilty to possessing 24 ecstasy tablets and amphetamines in London and Witney.

But after being sentenced to a 75-hour community punishment order at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court, London, she said the class A and B drugs belonged to her son and she had taken the rap for him.

The former MRI education and research coordinator for the University Department of Radiology at Oxford -- now a senior lecturer at Anglia Polytechnic University's department of radiography -- told reporters that her son was arrested in London with some of the drugs on October 29 last year.

The following day, police arrived at her home in Witney and found more drugs.

Ms Westbrook said: "I pleaded guilty because my solicitor told me to. She said there's no point because technically you knew about the drugs and that's the same as having them.

"I accept these are the laws -- the knowledge of possession by somebody who is in the same property is tantamount to you possessing it -- but I feel it is rather draconian."

She said her son was mortified and she felt she had been made an example of, adding: "I had to, being his parent, take the rap." She was also ordered to pay £50 costs.