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12
Sept 2022
Former headteacher given community order for child abuse images
A former Harrogate headteacherhas been spared jail after he was found guilty of making over 3,000 indecent images of children.
Matthew Shillito, 43, repeatedly visited a Russian website where he viewed sexual images of children, York Magistrates’ Court heard.
Shillito, who was appointed headteacher at Western Primary School in 2019, was arrested after police searched his home in January 2020 and seized a Dell laptop and Macbook Pro, on which they found thousands of sexual images of under-age girls.
On Friday, district judge Adrian Lower told Shillito his teaching career was now “in ruins” as he handed him an 18-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work.
Shillito was also placed on the disbarring lists preventing him from working with children ever again.
Shillito was convicted of the offences last month following a trial at the magistrates’ court. He had denied making 20 Category B images and 3,829 Category C images between September 2007 and December 2015, claiming the illegal images inadvertently found their way onto his devices while he was looking at other photographs online.
But judge Mr Lower found him guilty of both counts and said the evidence against the disgraced former teacher was “incontrovertible and inescapable”.
'Repeat viewing'
Shillito - who was previously headteacher across the Goldsborough Sicklinghall Federation of schools - had claimed that he was searching for holiday snaps because he had an interest in photography.
He also said he visited several websites for educational purposes because he was “dissatisfied in the way sex education was being taught at school”.
But prosecutor Philip Morris said that Shillito - who was understood to be in a relationship until shortly before his arrest - had visited some of these websites “30 or 40 times”. One of these websites was called ‘Pre-Teen Love’.
He added:
There was evidence of Shillito viewing the illicit images in 2011 and then again in 2015 when further images and “albums” with titles such as ‘Girls Line Up’ and ‘Girls Love Girls’ were found.
He had used search terms such as ‘Lolita’ while trawling the web for the illicit material, said Mr Morris.
'Previous good character'
After being arrested in January 2020, Shillito was immediately suspended from his teaching post and subsequently dismissed.
Kevin Blount, mitigating, said that Shillito had since “re-trained in another role” following the collapse of his teaching career.
He added:
Judge Mr Lower told Shillito:
He added, however, that Shillito’s “disgrace is complete” following the discovery of the sordid images.
He said Shillito had a “corrosive, addictive interest” in viewing indecent images of children, adding:
Imposing the 18-month community order, Mr Lower told Shillito:
Read more:
- Ex-Harrogate headteacher found guilty of making indecent images of children
- Former Harrogate headteacher 'repeatedly accessed' website with indecent images, court hears
As well as unpaid work hours, Shillito will also have to complete 24 days’ rehabilitation activity. He was placed on the sex-offenders’ register for five years and made subject to a five-year sexual-harm prevention order to curb his internet activities and allow police to monitor his online use.
He was also ordered to pay £600 prosecution costs and a £60 victim surcharge.
None of the offences related to Shillito’s employment at any of the schools where he worked.
Detective Constable Andy Lowes, of North Yorkshire Police’s Online Abuse and Exploitation Team, said:
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