A PROFESSOR at Oxford Brookes University suffered a “spectacular fall from grace” after indecent images of children were found on his work computer.

Ian Bentley, of Park Town, Oxford, yesterday avoided a prison sentence after he admitted two counts of making 22 indecent images between August 2007 and September 2011.

The 76-year-old was a professor of urban design at Brookes until his resignation in 2011 following the discovery of the pictures, along with other extreme pornography such as bestiality.

Daren Samat, defending, said his client had never actually viewed images of child abuse taking place.

He said: “It is a spectacular fall from grace for someone so educated.

“And I am told because of the very small number of images this could even have been dealt with by way of a caution or in the magistrates’ court.”

Sentencing Bentley at Oxford Crown Court to a two-year community order with a Cyber Safe programme requirement, Judge Patrick Eccles told him it was the lowest number of such images he had ever dealt with.

He said an aggravating factor was that the defendant had been looking at the pictures in his workplace.