A NURSE with just £50 to his name stands to lose his job and accommodation after sending his friend a handful of child sex abuse images he spotted on Facebook.

Handing Portuguese man Domingos Filho a 12-month community order, Recorder William Mousley QC said: “You admitted having these images and having made them in the sense that you had them and shared them with a friend.

“You knew that it was wrong to have done so. You knew they were illegal. But still knowing that, you were prepared to share them with another person.”

Swindon Crown Court heard Filho, 56, had moved to the UK five years ago. He was a trained specialist nurse, had worked as a paramedic in his native Portugal and moved to Britain to take up a job as a specialist carer in an old people’s home in Malmesbury.

In October 2017 he had come across a number of vile pictures and videos on Facebook showing children performing sex acts with each other or adults abusing children.

Thinking it was odd, he saved the images and sent them to a colleague at the care home.

Police were informed and later discovered the images saved on his Acer laptop. Filho made full admissions at his police interview.

Filho, of Athelstan Road, Malmesbury, admitted two counts of making indecent images of children. Mark Ashley, defending, said his client was a man of previous good character who now stood to lose his career and his accommodation. He had just £50 and, because of the coronavirus outbreak, would struggle to return to Portugal.

He had no sexual interest in children, but had shared the image with a colleague because he thought it was odd to see it on social media.

Mr Ashley said: “His world has been turned upside down as a result of very poor judgement indeed.”

He pointed to the delay in the case. It had been two years since Filho was interviewed by detectives.

A Det Con Parsons, the officer in the case, apologised to the court for that delay, citing competing priorities and a lack of resources. Prosecutor Colin Meeke said the defendant had been released under investigation: “You honour will be aware the RUI system hasn’t helped the process of cases through the criminal justice system or the police investigation side of things.”

As part of his community order Filho must complete 120 hours of unpaid work and up to 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days. A five year sexual harm prevention order requires him to make his electronic devices available to police inspection at any time.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “The children in these images, some of which fall into the most serious category, are victims of child abuse.

“In sharing them it fuels an alarming trade, in which children suffer for such abhorrent images to be created.

“With every click, upload and share, these victims are being re-abused and it is imperative this trade is stifled at its source to protect more children from being harmed.”