Headteacher who had 'paedophile manual' and photoshopped his face onto child sex abuse images jailed for 6 years
14 October 2022, 06:44 | Updated: 14 October 2022, 06:47
A primary school headteacher who kept a stash of horrific child abuse material - including a "paedophile manual" and more than one million indecent images - has been jailed, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
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Thomas Singleton, 41, who was also one of the child safeguarding leads at the school, was arrested last February after investigators discovered he had accessed illegal files online.
A search of his Suffolk home commenced, in which NCA investigators found numerous disturbing items as well as laptops and a number of digital storage devices.
Analysis of these showed he had 1,050,448 indecent images of children in categories A to C, 45,216 prohibited images of children, and 52 extreme pornographic images.
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Within those were a collection of chilling pseudo-images, which had been created by Singleton by superimposing himself into photos so it looked like he was engaging in sexual activity with children.
A 170-page paedophile manual entitled "How To Practice Child Love" was found on Singleton's hard drive, the NCA said.
It contained a number of chapters which provide advice and guidance on how to sexually abuse children without being caught.
Officers also recovered a number of online chat logs in which Singleton spoke with other like-minded individuals about child sexual abuse.
Hand-drawn flow charts linked with horrific documents describing child abuse scenarios were also found in his house.
Singleton resigned as a teacher during the course of the investigation, the NCA said.
He was charged with eight offences, including taking indecent pseudo-images of a child, making indecent images and possession of a paedophile manual.
He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced today at Ipswich Crown Court to six years in prison, according to the agency.
He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and has been placed on the Sex Offender Register indefinitely.
NCA operations manager Michael Parkinson said: "As a safeguarding lead and the head of a primary school, Singleton supposedly represented a dependable figure of safety and trust for young children, their families and the school community.
"This investigation showed he grossly abused that position.
"His house was filled with a large, disturbing collection of items which proved beyond doubt his sexual interest in children.
"Of particular concern was an extensive paedophile manual which offered explicit, practical guidance on how to carry out abuse.
"This case highlights how an offender's behaviour can escalate, from downloading abuse material to finding a community of like-minded individuals online who normalise and even encourage this criminal behaviour.
"Identifying such individuals at the earliest opportunity and disrupting this pattern of offending before they can commit real-world abuse is a top priority for the National Crime Agency."
