A former primary school teacher was jailed for nearly three years today after admitting abusing a young girl via a webcam and downloading hundreds of indecent images of children.
Married Matthew Back, 31, of Winstanley Avenue, Sheerness, was sentenced to 33 months behind bars at Maidstone Crown Court this afternoon after admitting 14 child abuse offences – including one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
The court heard how the paedophile, who worked at Minster Primary School for six years, swapped messages with a vulnerable teenager on an internet chat room, before enticing her into performing a degrading act in front of a web cam.
He also downloaded 282 sick images of children being abused, the worst involving a tiny baby and a toddler forced to wear a dog collar.
As he was led to the cells, Back looked towards his wife, parents and loved ones in the public gallery but did not speak.
Detective Sergeant David Shipley, from Kent police’s public protection crime unit, said the sentence was just and used the case to send out a stark message to paedophiles.
He said: “The level five material found on Back’s computer was some of the most shocking abuse we’ve seen.
“But our message is clear; if people are involved in any kind of child exploitation Kent police will do their best to track you down, there is no hiding place.
“People have got to get away from the idea these clips and photos are pornography – they are child abuse and show youngsters suffering.
“If it weren’t for people like Back downloading this material there would be a lot less cases of child abuse in the world.”
Police raided Back’s home last September, seizing his computer and hard drive.
During the police interview he admitted downloading the images from an internet file-sharing system and storing them in a folder where other internet paedophiles across the globe could access them.
He also confessed to logging on to a chat room and enticing a young girl into a sexual act.
In sentencing Judge Philip Statman told Back: “You used the internet to entice a young girl aged 15 to engage in sexual activity with you.
“You must have felt safe knowing that you were at your home address and that she was many miles away, almost sanitising yourself from the activity she was conducting.
“You watched thinking you would never be caught. You enticed her to abuse herself for your pleasure.
“I have to consider the degree of harm that someone such as yourself does to your victims. I say victims because every child in the images you downloaded are victims – some are clearly babies subjected to the most intolerable abuse.
“I have no doubt that all these offences were committed for your own sexual gratification.
“The lives of the children in the photographs and video clips have been destroyed by those who take the footage and photos and those who download them.”
Gloria Williams, chair of governors at Minster primary school, said: “We were disgusted by what we heard in court. The charges were more than abhorrent.
“We were extremely surprise but would like to point out that these charges have nothing to do with the school.”
Back was given a third off his sentence by pleading guilty at the first available opportunity.
He was placed on the sexual offenders register indefinitely and disqualified from working with children.
POSTED: 04/04/2008 17:31:38
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