A former classroom assistant who downloaded nearly 100 movies showing youngsters being sexually abused has been jailed for eight months.
Elland man Robert Souter, 25, lost his job at a Calderdale primary school after his arrest last year and a court heard that as well as downloading films and indecent images onto a MacBook computer he also had photographs of schoolchildren wearing bathing suits on his iPhone.
Although the iPhone images were not indecent Bradford Crown Court heard that Souter had found them by searching Facebook and Instagram and the Recorder of Bradford Judge Roger Thomas QC described Souter’s possession of those images as “a disturbing background” to his case.
Souter, of Dewsbury Road, admitted possessing 90 indecent movies at the most serious level together with more than 120 other images and movies.
After his arrest he told police he was very sorry for what he had done and described himself as “a hypocrite” because he should have known better.
Solicitor advocate Mark Watterson, for Souter, said he was a 25-year-old man without any previous convictions who had understandably lost his employment.
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Souter was sentenced alongside 47-year-old Brian Gillatt, of Maltings, Hipperholme, who was also arrested last year by officers acting on information received.
Gillatt, who had a relevant previous conviction from when he lived in Holland, admitted possessing more than 28,000 indecent images and movies.
The vast majority of the images on Gillatt’s devices were at the lowest level of seriousness.
Jailing both men for eight months Judge Thomas said that they had been caught last year with images of a “very vile and indecent nature” on their devices.
The judge said it had not been a case of casual or random downloading and both men had sought out the foul material.
Each man will not have to register as a sex offender with the police for the next 10 years and they will also be subject to indefinite sexual harm prevention orders.
