A FORMER Blackburn College lecturer has avoided an immediate prison sentence after being convicted of possessing thousands of images of children.

Ian Reddy, 44, was also convicted of three counts of making images of children, 18 of which were of the most serious category and showed sex with children, when he appeared before Judge Stuart Baker at Preston Crown Court.

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A police spokesman said when officers raided Reddy’s home in April 2015 they found around 3,500 images on his computer.

All the offences were committed between August 2011 and April 2015.

Reddy was charged with the possessing and making of indecent images offences in January and sentenced earlier this month.

He was suspended from his part-time job as a music lecturer at Blackburn College the day of the raid, before being sacked following an investigation.

A spokesman for Blackburn College said: “The college was made aware of the arrest of Mr Ian Reddy, a part-time music lecturer, by the local authority designated officer on Monday, April 13, 2015, and he was immediately suspended.

“He was then dismissed following an investigation on October 30, 2015.

“The safeguarding of students is a top priority at Blackburn College and we expect all our staff to act with the highest level of professionalism at all times. We co-operated with the relevant agencies to achieve the swiftest outcome with no impact to our students.”

Reddy, of Fermor Road, Preston, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years and must have any contact with children within the next two years supervised by an appropriate person.

Judge Baker also made him subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order limiting the way he uses the internet, ordered him to attend an internet sex offenders’ programme and made a forfeiture order for his computer equipment.