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10
Aug 2022
Ex-Harrogate headteacher found guilty of making indecent images of children
A former Harrogate headteacher has been found guilty of making indecent images of children.
Matthew Shillito, 42, pleaded not guilty to making 20 Category B images and 3,829 Category C images between December 3, 2012 and December 31, 2015.
Shillito was appointed headteacher of Western Primary School in 2019.
He was previously headteacher across the Goldsborough Sicklinghall Federation of schools.
None of the offences related to his employment.
Shillito appeared before York Magistrates Court this morning, where District Judge Adrian Lower found him guilty on both charges.
He said the evidence showed Shillito had a "corrosive, addictive interest in child pornography”.
Read more:
- Former Harrogate headteacher ‘repeatedly accessed’ website with indecent images, court hears
- Ex-Harrogate headteacher denies making indecent images of children
During the case, “making” was defined as knowingly accessing a site that contained an indecent image.
The court was told that there was no evidence that Mr Shillito downloaded the material onto his laptop.
The prosecution opened proceedings at Harrogate Magistrates Court last month and said the indecent images were found on the cache in Shillito’s computer, which could have only have got there had he accessed sites with those images.
Philip Morris, prosecuting, said there were “indicative” terms found on Shillito’s laptop which showed intent to access the images.
Police arrested Shillito and seized two computers at his address on January 4, 2020.
Officers recovered a Dell laptop and a MacBook Pro, which contained a back up from an iPad mini which was not found.
Giving evidence to the court last month, Zoe Warboys, a digital forensic investigation officer at North Yorkshire Police, said that while the defendant may not have been aware of the cache, he could have only got them by accessing the material.
A Russian website named in court was frequently accessed on the Dell laptop, which Ms Warboys told the court was a site which contained indecent images of children.
The site is public and allows users to upload albums of images which others can view.
The court heard how the site was frequently visited on February 26, 2011.
Mr Morris told the court that Shillito visited some of the pages which were “indicative” of possibly including indecent images 30 times.
Shillito repeatedly denied both charges throughout the case.
This morning, District Judge Lower adjourned sentencing Shillito until September 7. He bailed Shillito but warned him all sentencing options would be considered including jail.
More to follow.
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