Locations
Severn Way, Cressage, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY5
Description
A former head teacher who secretly filmed boys getting changed and downloaded child abuse images has been jailed.
More than 3,500 indecent images were found on devices belonging to 47-year-old Tim Moule, who was the safeguarding lead at his school.
Videos of boys changing from uniforms into sports kit were also recovered.
Moule, from Shropshire, admitted voyeurism and making indecent images charges and was jailed for 52 months.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said he was reported to the police after a parent had found social media messages from him to her son.
Prosecutor Howard Searle said Moule was sacked after indecent images, downloaded following 1,700 separate paedophile-related web searches, were found on a hard drive and laptop.
Moule, of Severn Way, Cressage, told police he had not gained sexual gratification from the images but refused to comment further after images of his voyeurism victims were recovered.
Sentencing him at Stafford Crown Court, Judge Michael Chambers QC said it was difficult to envisage a more gross breach of trust and that had not shown much remorse.
He added that an aggravating feature of the indecent image offences were that the children were in "pain and distress."
Defence barrister Jasvir Mann said "little can be said" to mitigate his conduct and Moule knew that there was no excuse for accessing the material.
Moule, who is married, was the head of schools in Wolverhampton and Shropshire after a "stellar" career rise.
He previously admitted six counts of recording a person doing a private act and two counts of making indecent photos of a child.