A SEX pervert who worked at schools in Huddersfield and Halifax has been jailed.
Graham Roebuck has been locked up for five years after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing two youngsters and downloading child porn.
Roebuck, 58, committed the sex offences against a girl and a boy nearly a decade ago and it was during a police inquiry in 2010 that more than 2,500 indecent images of children were found on his computer.
Roebuck had denied all the charges, but was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court last week.
Judge John Potter adjourned sentence on Roebuck until yesterday, when he jailed him for a total of five years.
The two victims cannot be identified for legal reasons, but the sex offences were not related to Roebuck's work as a teacher.
As a result of his conviction Judge Potter banned Roebuck from working with children and he will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for the rest of his life.
Roebuck, of Ladyhouse Lane. Berry Brow, had no previous convictions and Judge Potter said he was a man of impeccable character.
“You are hitherto of impeccable character and I do recognise that your conviction in these proceedings of sexual assaults on children represents a dramatic and complete loss of good character and reputation in particular given your life pursuit of a career in teaching,” the judge told Roebuck.
Roebuck was found guilty on five charges relating to the sexual abuse of the two children and a further 20 allegations covering the child porn images on his computer.
Most of the indecent images on the computer were at the lowest level of seriousness but officers did find a quantity of more serious child porn.
Judge Potter said such images offended by their content, but also contributed significantly to the abuse of children.
“If people like you did not wish to seek sexual gratification in looking for images such as these on the internet, and thereafter view them, the images may not be created in the first place,” the judge told Roebuck.
The judge pointed out that during his trial Roebuck had compelled his victims to give evidence and be cross-examined on the basis that they were not telling the truth.
“The verdicts in this case show that the jury rejected that argument.
“That you, in fact, lied. That you lied to the jury about how the images came to be on your computer and what happened in relation to the abuse matters,” the judge told Roebuck.
Roebuck was jailed for a total of four-and-a-half years for the sexual abuse matters with an additional six months in prison for the child porn offences.
Roebuck's barrister Sophie Drake said her client had been in teaching for many years and there was never a suggestion of any complaints against him.
“Despite the fact that having had, no doubt, lots of opportunity to offend against children there is absolutely no suggestion he did within his capacity as a teacher,” she stressed.
“As a result of this conviction the defendant has lost a job which he was clearly very dedicated to and a job he loved very much.”
Miss Drake said Roebuck feared that his partner may not be able to keep their home and he was also concerned about the impact on his elderly mother.
“Perhaps that says something about him that his first thoughts are with those people he is leaving behind,” she added.
Det Con Emma Summerscales of West Yorkshire’s Child Safeguarding Unit, said: “We welcome the conviction of Roebuck for historic offending which has betrayed the trust of others and caused real harm to his victims.
“He chose to put them through the ordeal of giving evidence and concocted a defence for his possession of indecent images which was dismissed as 'absurd' by the court.
“I want to praise the bravery of Roebuck's victims in coming forward to help secure justice and hope seeing him put behind bars will give them some closure.”
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