Child abuse pictures teacher walks free

A primary school teacher in the UK who downloaded photographs of child sex abuse from the Internet walked free from court today after claiming he had been revolted by the images.

Ronald Smith was caught with 81 indecent pictures on his computer after supplying his credit card details to a US-based company, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Smith, a film buff and a regular contestant on TV quiz shows, including The Weakest Link, was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.

The 50-year-old, formerly of Baxter Road, Brierley Hill, West Midlands, admitted 12 specimen counts of making indecent images at an earlier hearing.

The teacher, who was working at Charlemont Primary School in West Bromwich when his home was raided by police last September, was detained as part of Operation Ore, which has so far seen 1,300 arrests in Britain.

The operation was sparked by an FBI probe which uncovered the credit card numbers of 250,000 people across the world who had visited illegal websites.

Justine Latimer, prosecuting, said deleted images, which had been downloaded in June last year and in 1999, had been recovered from the hard drive of Smith’s computer.

The defendant, who has lost his job after 29 years in the teaching profession, initially lied to police, claiming he had not accessed any indecent images recently.

Michael Grey, defending, said his client had acted out of curiosity and had e-mailed companies asking them not to send him any more pictures.

Mr Grey told the court:: "He has always said that he was disgusted by these photographs.

"His life has been ruined by that half an hour of curiosity. He has lost his job, he has spent 18 days in custody (on remand) and also spent three months in a bail hostel.

"He has lost his career and his reputation."

The barrister added that Smith had also been forced to put his home, which boasts an eight-seat cinema, up for sale.

Judge John Wait, who ordered Smith to pay £595 (€897.421) in costs, said such offenders created a market for those who peddled child pornography.

The judge said: "Any offence involving the downloading of indecent images of children is very serious.

"Those committed after earlier access are even more serious and all such images involve the serious abuse of children, it occurs because there is a market for such photographs."

Ordering that Smith be prevented from working with children during his Community Rehabilitation Order, the judge said the sentence would allow control and supervision of the defendant over a longer period than a jail term.