Teacher Timothy Arthur sentenced for child abuse images
A teacher from South Gloucestershire who bought child abuse images from Canada has been given a suspended jail sentence.
Timothy Arthur, 58, of Staple Hill, worked part-time at The Grange School, in Warmley, at the time of his arrest, but has since resigned.
Arthur pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making indecent images, at Bristol Crown Court.
He was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Arthur was also made the subject of a 15-year sexual offenders prevention order and a 24-month supervision order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for five years.
The charges were made in connection with Operation Spade, an international investigation into the purchasing of child abuse materials from Canadian company Azov Films.
Information was submitted by Toronto police via Interpol to the UK, that Arthur had bought DVDs, CDs and downloads from Azov Films between December 2007 and December 2010, more than 70 of which contained indecent images of children.
He was arrested in February and his home was searched. Officers seized laptops, USB sticks, external hard drives and a large number of printed photos and DVDs.
The school wrote to parents to reassure them none of the charges related to pupils at the school.
Det Con Stuart Brooks said: "When Timothy Arthur was arrested he fully admitted that he'd bought materials from Azov Films.
"Although he made attempts to downplay the seriousness of the images and his motivation for buying them, he accepted his guilt and has now been punished for his crimes.
"Anyone who purchases indecent materials of children plays an active role in fuelling this horrific industry.
"While Arthur may not have known the identities of the children he had indecent images of, the inescapable truth is that they're real children being sexually exploited and abused."