Coventry University lecturer sent student child porn Published duration 28 August 2015

image caption Sophie Nightingale and Martyn Lee were sentenced at Warwick Crown Court

A lecturer exchanged images of child abuse with a student at Coventry University, a court has heard.

Martyn Lee, 54, admitted six counts of making and distributing indecent images of children, while student Sophie Nightingale, 23, of Hixon in Staffordshire, admitted four counts.

Both were placed on the sex offenders register for five years and given three year community orders.

They were sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday.

'Clearly vulnerable'

Coventry University said Lee, of Meriden in Solihull, had been dismissed following a disciplinary hearing in 2014, while performing arts student Nightingale was no longer at the university.

Det Con Hannah Millington, of West Midlands Police, said: "The images that the pair exchanged were graded from C up to A, which is the most explicit.

"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."

The University said the couple's relationship and the offences they admitted "took place in their private lives and, in both cases, were outside the university's knowledge and jurisdiction".

"When the university was made aware, swift and appropriate disciplinary action was taken in line with our staff and student codes of conduct," it said.