A UNIVERSITY student from Kingswinford who was caught with more than 16,800 sickening pornographic photographs of children, has been placed on supervision for three years.

Daniel Wassell, of Kingsley Road, was told by Judge Martin Walsh: "It is right to say and right to remind you that these images show the real abuse of real children.”

He added: "Those who create images of this sort can expect to go to prison for a very long time. You are not responsible for creating or distributing these images.

"But you downloaded the images that had been created by others. It seems to me after reading psychological and pre-sentence reports it is in the public interests that I impose a community order."

Wassell admitted five charges of making indecent images of children and was told by the judge he must attend the sex offenders programme.

The judge also made him the subject of a seven year sex offenders protection order and told him he must also register as a sex offender for the next five years.

Adam Western, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court that police officers went to Wassell’s home and seized computer equipment containing the images.

He said the officers found he had 16,080 indecent images at level one, 93 at level two, 221 at level three, 396 at level four and 19 at level five - the worst category.

Delroy Henry, defending Wassell, a young man of previous good character, stressed he had made full and frank admissions to police after his arrest.