A paedophile school caretaker who collected over one thousand indecent images of children has been spared an immediate jail term.
Former Oakhurst Community Primary School worker Colin Jones, 56, appeared before Swindon Magistrates’ Court in April where he admitted three counts of possessing incident images.
The defendant, of Greenhill Drive, Gloucester, attempted to access illegal websites whilst working at the school in February last year. As a result, the activity flagged up and the school alerted the police.
A subsequent raid on his home by officers uncovered 1041 prohibited images, including: 201 in category A (involving penetrative sexual activity), 212 in category B (non-penetrative sexual activity) and in category C images (indecent images not falling within categories A or B).
At Swindon Crown Court today, he was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to participate in rehabilitation, unpaid work and was given a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
Detective Constable Jason Walsh, from the Child Internet Exploitation Team, said: “These types of investigations very often start with intelligence we receive from other agencies, alerting us to the fact that someone at a certain IP address is accessing indecent images.
“We are then able to trace this person, seize their computers, phones and laptops, and have these forensically examined so we understand the scale of the offending.
“Our work is dedicated to identifying offenders and ensuring they are brought to justice. These are not victimless crimes – each child pictured in these images is a victim of very real abuse and needs protecting.”
