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Disgraced lecturer sent indecent pictures to Staffordshire student in 'fetish relationship'

A disgraced senior university lecturer who sent indecent images of children to a student from Staffordshire he was in a fetishist relationship with has escaped being jailed.

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But Martyn Lee, who was principal lecturer in the Communication Culture and Media department at Coventry University, was ordered to take part in a sex offender's programme.

Lee, aged 54, of Eves Green Lane, Meriden, Warwickshire pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday to four charges of distributing indecent images of children.

He also admitted two charges of making 124 indecent images of children by downloading them onto his MacBook computer.

"The judge commented that Nightingale is clearly vulnerable and has personal issues so it was not in the public interest to send her to prison and therefore not fair to send Lee to prison either.

Sophie Nightingale, a student in the Performing Arts department at the university at the time, admitted three charges of making indecent photos of children which were found on her laptop computer.

Nightingale, 23, of Bath Lane, Hixon, Stafford, also admitted possessing an image of extreme pornography, said to show 'in an explicit way' an act which threatened a person's life.

They were both given three-year community sentences and ordered to register as sex offenders for five years.

Prosecutor Delroy Henry said matters came to light in January last year when Nightingale told the police that she was in a relationship with a convicted child sex offender.

She also disclosed that she had been sent indecent images of children by her university lecturer, which prompted the police to arrest Lee.

Following his arrest Lee acknowledged he had been a member of an adult fetish website for three to four weeks and had been talking online to Nightingale who was on the same site.

Mr Henry said Lee became aware Nightingale was a student at the university after they had begun talking online.

Mr Marcus Harry, defending Lee, said: "He is a man of previous good character, a man of exemplary character who had for 26 years worked as a lecturer at Coventry University.

"In 2008 the defendant's relationship with his wife broke down, but they remained residing in the matrimonial home, but no longer as husband and wife.

"He joined the website and it's there he met Sophie Nightingale. It was not just her he was communicating with in such an unsavoury fashion."

Paul Hiatt, for Nightingale, said she had made 'full and frank admissions' to the police, adding: "To her credit she reported this to a course director at the university and then went to the police of her own accord.

Sentencing Lee and Nightingale, Recorder Stephen Linehan QC told them: "The court has no role to play in the private consenting sexual conduct of adults.

"But where their sexual conduct affects the welfare of others, it is no longer a private matter. It becomes a matter of public concern."

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