Locations
Potterspury, West Northamptonshire, NN12
Description
Philip Allen, who has since been fired from his job at Shenley Brook End School, is a prominent figure in religious education nationally and has written frequently for the Times Educational Supplement.
48-year-old married man from Potterspury, appeared at Northampton Magistrates’ Court to plead guilty to six charges of making indecent images of children and a charge of possessing prohibited images.
He admitted possessing 172 ‘category A’ indecent images of children, the most extreme kind. He also admitted having 46 category B images and 37 of category C.
Prosecuting, Jerena Tomaszewska said Allen’s crimes were uncovered after police seized his electronic devices in June during a raid on his house.
She said: “Images were found on a laptop and individual images found on an external hard drive.
“The report shows that some of the images were also backed up from the defendant’s iPad.”
Allen had been a member of the TES teacher panel and a national TES advisor for key stage 4 religious studies.
He was bailed under a condition he could not come into unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18.
Presiding magistrate Diana Whittaker told Allen: “Our powers of sentencing are insufficient for you, these charges are too serious.”
She referred Allen to Crown Court and he faces up to a year in prison.