September 2003

Child porn teacher avoids jail

A former teacher at a top independent school who admitted downloading child pornography on to his home computer has been sentenced to 12 months community rehabilitation, narrowly missing a jail term.

Paul Day, 47, was a housemaster at King Edward VI School in Southampton, Hampshire, when he stored hundreds of pictures of naked boys aged between 10 and 16 on the computer.

The images were discovered during a raid on the economics teacher’s home in March.

Day, from Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, was suspended from the school where he had taught for 23 years, and was sacked when he later pleaded guilty to 18 charges of making indecent pictures of a child under 16.

The prosecution told New Forest Magistrates Court how Day had failed to rid the hard-drive of images he had downloaded the day before the raid.

But the defence said Day had begun downloading gay porn because he felt insecure that his male partner also had a wife.

When he stumbled on images of children, “curiosity got the better of him”.

The court heard how Day felt guilty every time he looked at the images and that when he was arrested he told police officers: “I just want to get it over with.”

Sex offenders register

Sentencing Day, magistrate Paul Keeping said: “We have taken into account the feelings of the children whose pictures have been taken and your actions that only fuel demand for this crime.

“But we have looked at your good character, good references and your guilty plea and have decided you will just miss a custodial sentence.”

Day was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for the next five years and ordered to pay £130 costs.

In a statement, the bursar of the 450-year-old school, Wing Commander Vivian Gage, said Day would be a “significant loss” to the school.