INDECENT images of children were found on the home computer of a Rugby man, leading him to lose his job at the school where he had worked for ten years.
Raymond Curtis had originally denied downloading the images, showing girls no older than ten – but later called the police to admit being responsible.
Curtis, 49, of Bucknill Crescent, Rugby, then pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children.
At Warwick Crown Court he was given a 12-month community order, with a rehabilitation activity for 25 days, and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years and to pay £100 costs.
Prosecutor Aimee Parkes said the police had received information about indecent images of children being downloaded at an address in Rugby, and went to Curtis’s home in June – but ‘no-one was forthcoming’ with information about who was responsible, so the officers seized a computer tower and a laptop.
On the tower they found 25 indecent images of children, including videos, of which some had been deleted but others were still accessible.
Judge Anthony Potter observed that the descriptions of the images indicated that none of the girls appeared to be older than ten, with one of them being as young as four.
When Curtis was first questioned he denied downloading or viewing the images – but contacted the police at the beginning of July to admit being responsible.
He said he was going through ‘a bad patch’ with his wife, and denied having any sexual interest in children, adding that he ‘never wants to see a computer again,’ added Miss Parkes.
Marcus Harry, defending, said: “Mr Curtis is deeply remorseful for his behaviour, remorseful for the children who had been abused, and for the impact it’s had on his family.”
He said Curtis had worked at a school for ten years – not as a teacher – and stressed there was no allegation of anything other than his downloading of images from the internet.
“This was offending of a very limited nature over a period of five to six weeks.”
Mr Harry added that Curtis had lost his job as a result of the offences, and had not applied for another job pending the outcome of the court case.
Judge Potter told Curtis: “It might be that yours is a salutary tale for anyone like you who may be tempted into searching for and viewing images of children being abused.
“You have had to tell your wife and eldest children what you did, and it will undoubtedly have had real ramifications for your relationship with them.
“I believe you deliberately went looking for these images. You were able to distance yourself in your action from what was actually going on, because you were viewing the abuse over a computer. You may now begin to appreciate what was going on.
“It does not cease to shock those who work in the criminal court the age at which people are prepared to take children to abuse them.
“The children being abused were the same age as your children. If that is not cause to reflect on your actions you are in a very, very sorry place.”
