A British schoolteacher caught with 4,500 pornographic images — some of children as young as two — was told by the presiding judge that she\u00a0understood his\u00a0being attracted to children, but that\u00a0other\u00a0teachers\u00a0with such urges keep them under control.<\/p>\n
The 63-year old substitute teacher David Armstrong was\u00a0arrested after a colleague noticed files on Armstrong\u2019s laptop with names such as \u201crape wife,\u201d \u201cnude model\u201d and \u201cgay alligator,\u201d according to reports in the British newspapers the Telegraph<\/em> and the Daily Mail.<\/em><\/p>\n A\u00a0classroom assistant immediately reported Armstrong to the police who found\u00a04,500 sexual images and videos on two laptops and an external hard drive.<\/p>\n The local court in the town of Reading was told that more than 300 were of the \u201cworst kind,\u201d some involving toddlers, according to press reports.<\/em><\/p>\n He was\u00a0given a suspended sentence\u00a0after Judge Mary Jane Mowat told him, “This was by any standards a substantial collection, with some 300 of the worst kind. You are 63 and this is your first conviction despite working as a teacher for 40 years. I don’t criticize you for being attracted to children, many very good teachers are, but keep their urges under control.”<\/p>\n According to\u00a0the local newspaper, the Reading Chronicle<\/em>, David Armstrong, 63, “was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years at Reading Crown Court on Friday for each of five charges of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, which he admitted at an earlier hearing. The court heard he realized he was attracted to children in his 20s.”<\/p>\n The judge\u00a0then\u00a0placed Armstrong on\u00a0Britain’s Sex Offenders Register for 10 years, with a Sexual Prevention Order which bans him from owning a computer or device capable of connecting to the internet, and ordered him to pay 500 British pounds\u00a0in court costs and to undergo treatment.<\/p>\n He is also banned from working with children. The Chronicle<\/em> adds:<\/p>\n Defence counsel Robin Shellard said Armstrong, who is married and is the main carer of his elderly mother, worked at many schools and colleges and has an impeccable record.<\/p>\n He said some of the pictures were not of real youngsters but of “Japanese images depicting children” and only 0.5% were at the most serious level 5.<\/p>\n After the case, Little Heath headteacher David Ramsden stressed the offences do not relate to any pupils at the school past or present.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cTeachers are professionals whose interest is ensuring children and young people achieve their educational potential,” said Christine Blower, general secretary of\u00a0Britain’s National Union of Teachers. “To suggest their interest in pupils could understandably be anything else is totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A British schoolteacher caught with 4,500 pornographic images — some of children as young as two — was told by the presiding judge that she\u00a0understood his\u00a0being attracted to children, but that\u00a0other\u00a0teachers\u00a0with such urges keep them under control. The 63-year old substitute teacher David Armstrong was\u00a0arrested after a colleague noticed files on Armstrong\u2019s laptop with names…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1280,2201,2271],"class_list":["post-5153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-david-armstrong","tag-news","tag-pedophilia"],"yoast_head":"\n