February 2014

Leconfield Army instructor Andrew Silverwood jailed for using phone to secretly record soldiers in toilets

Dozens of soldiers including veteran combat troops were filmed secretly for the sexual gratification of a perverted Army driving instructor.

Andrew Silverwood, 47, was jailed for 11 years and nine months at Hull Crown Court yesterday after admitting voyeurism and a range of sexual offences against boys.

He was caught with scores of indecent photographs and films on his computers after using his mobile phone to record uniformed soldiers on rest breaks while teaching them to drive at the Defence School of Transport in Leconfield, near Beverley.

He took students on drives across Yorkshire and hid his phone in public toilets when they stopped at cafés for lunch.

Silverwood, of The Old Maltings, Driffield, covertly recorded the trainees relieving themselves, some of whom were rookies of 17, while others were battle-hardened veterans from the frontline in Afghanistan.

He also encouraged them to bend over and inspect the vehicles so he could take pictures of them without their knowledge.

Silverwood was told he had betrayed a position of “great trust” and was guilty of “appalling conduct,” when sentenced yesterday.

Recorder Nicholas Lumley QC told him: “You were in a position of great trust within the Army, where all individuals, from civil servants to privates and officers, all the people employed, rely on each other.

“Trust is fundamental in the Army and you betrayed that trust by what you did.”

Silverwood also admitted abusing two teenage boys.

While serving in the Territorial Army in his twenties in the 1980s, Silverwood preyed on one boy who shared his fascination for the military.

He plied him with alcohol and loaned him pornography before sexually abusing him.

The boy would sometimes wake up to find Silverwood performing sex acts on him.

The abuse only stopped when Silverwood moved away from the East Riding town where the boy lived.

He later visited Silverwood in his flat and discovered an old Polaroid of himself naked, and a similar picture of another child.

He told Silverwood to destroy the pictures. It left him “feeling ashamed and embarrassed, which is why he told the police he’d never previously reported the matter and had only done so recently,” David Gordon, prosecuting, told the court.

Recorder Lumley said it was clear the boy looked up to Silverwood and would have been “in awe” of him.

Silverwood, who is married, began abusing another boy when the youth was 14.

Police began investigating after that boy reported finding indecent images of children on Silverwood’s mobile phone and computer.

Officers discovered indecent images and films on a range of Silverwood’s media devices. They ranged from levels one to five, where five is the most serious.

Silverwood admitted two counts of gross indecency, two of indecent assault, voyeurism, two counts of making indecent images and films of children and sexual activity with a child.

An Army spokesman said: “All those who are found to fall short of the Ministry of Defence’s high standards or who are found to have committed an offence are dealt with as appropriate, up to and including dismissal.”