Ex-teacher snared over child porn after computer is stolen
THE ex-chair of governors of a public school was jailed yesterday after he was caught with vile child sex abuse images on his computer following a burglary.
Former music teacher Andrew Brown, 61, claimed a man who robbed his house placed the images in order to blackmail him.
But a jury convicted him of downloading more than 600 images and 14 videos of graphic child pornography involving victims as young as three.
Brown, of Peterborough, was the former chair of governors at the city’s King’s School,
He was also heavily involved in the Girl Guides movement and was once a music examiner.
A judge at Peterborough Crown Court described him as “very damaged” as he jailed him for two years.
The court heard officers found the pornography on a memory stick, computer and laptop after his home was burgled in 2015.
But thief Ryan Penfold, who later admitted the burglary, said: “I do not want these, they contain child pornography, you can have them back.”
During the trial Brown claimed Penfold had planted the images in a bid to blackmail him.
Judge Jonathan Cooper told him: “Your view of children is an utterly repugnant one. You are clearly a very damaged man with a warped view of how children in our society should be treated.
“Even when it became clear that certain of your devices were used for searches only when you had exclusive access to them, including for example your iPhone when you were abroad conducting music exams, you claimed then that there must have been undetected burglaries when burglars had planted materials on your computers.” The judge also commended the work of the “diligent” forensic team who brought him to justice despite Brown installing specialist software to hide the pornography.
Brown was also banned from working with children, ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years, and ordered to pay court costs of £2,000.
Brown was found guilty of three counts of possessing indecent images of children, two of making indecent images of children, and one of possessing a prohibited image of a child. He was found not guilty of two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images.