A business studies lecturer dumped a laptop in a canal to hide indecent images he had downloaded.
He put the images on a college computer which he threw into a waterway when the alarm was raised, a court heard.
It led to Darren Judson's contract being terminated at New College, Nottingham, and his decline was outlined at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.
Deputy District Judge Vee Munro told him: "These images are out there for ever and a day.
"It perpetrates the crime that people are looking at these images."
She imposed a 38-week prison term, suspended for two years, on Judson, 55, of Staples Street, Nottingham. He must do 120 hours community work and spend 35 days of rehabilitation with probation officers.
Judson admitted downloading 64 indecent images of children at his home between January 1, 2014 and March 26 last year. None of the images were related to his work.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing a £395 laptop from the college on High Road, Chilwell, in March last year.
Chris Wall, mitigating, said that Judson started working at New College in 1996 and his last role was teaching business studies.
"He was suspended in March, his employment was terminated in June. Since that time, he has had to sign on for benefits but managed three weeks working in a warehouse picking and packaging.
"It is very different to the type of work he is used to," said Mr Wall, who told the court that Judson had "demonstrated an awareness of the impact" of the offences.
Robert Carr, prosecuting, said that Judson had been handed a college computer to allow him to do some work at home.
But last March, a monitoring system was "alerted by software that indecent images were being loaded onto the computer."
Mr Carr said: "He was suspended on the same day and told to return the computer.
"He later said that he had thrown it into a canal and that machine has never been recovered."
Mr Carr described the photos of being "pre-pubescent girls, partially clothed, on occasions striking a provocative pose." The images were in Category C, the least serious class.
