April 2011

Paedophile teacher brothers took pictures of schoolgirls changing and hoarded 11,000 ‘grotesque’ images

Grotesque: Christopher Davis (L) was jailed for 14 months and his brother Timothy given a community sentence for child pornography offence

Two brothers who spent decades as teachers were convicted of child pornography after photographs they took of schoolgirls were found among 11,000 depraved images of children.

Christopher Davis, 43, who was deputy headteacher of St Patrick’s Church of England Junior and Infant School in Solihull, West Midlands, also downloaded images of adults having sex with children on the internet.

Warwick Crown Court heard that Davis had taken photos of pupils in his care doing school work – but had zoomed in on children bending over or adjusting their underwear.

Other images of children had been Photoshopped so they had the words ‘strip bitch’ or ‘slut’ plastered over them.

Christopher Davis, who had more than 11,700 indecent images of kids on his computer, admitted 11 charges of making indecent images of children.

He was jailed for 14 months, ordered to register as a sex offender and made subject to a sexual offences prevention order for ten years.

Last month his 38-year-old brother, Timothy Davis, who was a teacher at Monkspath Junior and Infants School near Solihull, was given a community sentence after he admitted four charges of making indecent images.

The brothers were arrested last summer after police found child pornography on the computer at the home they shared with their mother.

He said: ‘One computer was on, and the officer did not have to look very far to see there were indecent images of females which had been downloaded from a Japanese website.

‘But Davis’s response was to declare: ”Ah yes, but they’re legal, aren’t they?” He was arrested and bailed. His computer equipment was examined and the thousands of indecent images of children were discovered, the majority of which had been downloaded.

Mr Gardner said: ‘An aggravating feature is that there were a number of photographs which had been taken by the defendant, it would appear covertly, in various scenarios at the school where he was working at the time.

‘They were of children who had been committed into his care as a teacher. Some showed children changing and therefore, to an extent, in a state of undress.

‘Some were not indecent per se, but had been manipulated after being put onto his computer with the addition of captions such as ”strip bitch”,’ ”tight bum” and ”slut”. That is a fairly gross breach of trust.’

One charge involved clips filmed by Christopher Davis in a classroom at a school where he was working of children in painting in an art class – but zooming in as girls were adjusting their dresses or underwear and while they were bending over

Others showed girls aged about ten naked from the waist up as they were changing for games lessons, with captions, as well as footage of girls changing while on a school outing.

Other charges featured girls in naked poses which had been downloaded from the internet, including 11,000 still images and a large number of films.

There were also large numbers of downloaded images of girls engaging in sexual touching, and of adults taking part in sex acts with children, including girls aged between nine and 16 being made to strip and being humiliated and spanked, some of them dating back as far as 1994.

Mr Gardener said there was also ‘fairly unpleasant’ paedophile literature which was not the subject of a charge.

Michael Duck QC, defending, said: ‘He has recognised he has a problem and realises he is someone who needs help, not just for his benefit, but for the children who appear in some of the images – because he acknowledges that without people like him there would be no market for such images.’

But Mr Duck said Christopher Davis, who had been a teacher for more than 20 years, did not distribute any of the images.

‘There is no suggestion there has been any physical contact between him and any children.’

He pointed out that his brother Timothy Davis appeared at court last month for offences of a similar nature, but on a much smaller scale, but there was no connection between their activities other than living at the same address.

Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: ‘I have to take into account the public’s confidence that is necessary when they send their children to school to be looked after by other adults.

‘It is bad enough and damaging to that confidence for them to think that the people looking after their children are committing criminal offences by downloading material which involves the exploitation of children, wherever they are in the world.

‘It is so much worse when their own children have been made the subject of photographic images which are then going to be used by you for your sexual gratification.

‘Those children are in your care, and they are young and innocent. A young girl bends over, and finds it is part of some grotesque sexual imagery which is out there for all to see.’

Under the sexual offences prevention order, Christopher Davis is banned from seeking or undertaking any work in schools or colleges or voluntary work which involves coaching or minding children under 18 and banned from taking or possessing non-commercial images in which children are the main subject.