Teaching assistant arrested at Barnsley primary school had hundreds of child sex abuse images
A man working as a teaching assistant at a primary school downloaded hundreds of sickening pictures and searched for content involving kids as young as five.
61-year-old Tim Connellan was arrested at the Barnsley primary school he worked at by police officers who were acting on intelligence suggesting he had been accessing child sexual abuse material online, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Across Connellan’s numerous phones and laptops, police found a total of 1,931 indecent images of children, 370 of which are classified as involving penetrative sexual activity and fall into the most serious legal category.
There is no suggestion any of the abuse images downloaded by Connellan featured children known to him.
Judge Rachael Harrison said she found the fact Connellan, of Pontefract Road, Lundwood, Barnsley, was previously employed as a primary school teaching assistant to be of concern.
She added: “Those who view indecent images of children are as guilty as those doing the touching, because if people like you didn’t look at indecent images there would be no market for people to be touching children.
“You create the market for this abuse, which damages and destroys children’s lives.”
Connellan also “went out of his way” to conceal the images, something Judge Harrison highlighted as an aggravating factor during a hearing held on May 14, 2025.
Before locating, and arresting, Connellan at his school on July 2, 2024, officers attended at his Barnsley home.
He was not present, but they were able to recover a number of electrical devices, including two laptops, said prosecutor Brian Outhwaite.
A mobile phone was also recovered from Connellan during his arrest.
Mr Outhwaite described how Connellan admitted to officers that he had been downloading the images for a “number of years.”
“He said he found looking at the children attractive, but not sexually attractive…he said he looked at the images almost on a daily basis,” Mr Outhwaite told the court.
Connellan’s offending period involving the images ran between November 9, 2022 and February 6, 2024, but also admitted deleting some in 2018 after applying for a job with the police, the court heard.
In addition to being able to locate the images downloaded, and accessed, by Connellan, officers were also able to recover the search terms used, most of which were discovered on his mobile phone.
Among the search terms used by Connellan were “5YO,” “6YO,” and “7YO,” with Mr Outhwaite asserting that YO meaning “years old.”
Connellan also searched for “naked kids” “9YO Philippine cam” and “7YO Lolita.”
Connellan was subsequently charged with, and pleaded guilty to, offences including making indecent images of children, with 370 images of Category A; 411 of Category B and 1,150 of Category C.
Under the law, “making” an indecent image can refer to the “opening, accessing, downloading and storing of online content.”
Connellan had a clean criminal record, prior to this offending, the court heard.
Judge Harrison sentenced Connellan to an 18-month community order.
She explained that protection of the public is her priority, but if she were to send Connellan to prison the sentencing guidelines for his crimes mean he would only serve a matter of months before being released without having addressed his offending.
Judge Harrison suggested genuine “rehabilitation” may prevent Connellan from “doing anything like this again.”
She told Connellan, however: “If you don’t try to understand what led you to commit these offences over a number of years, you will find yourself back in court, and you will go to prison.”
As part of his order, Connellan must complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days, along with 200 hours unpaid work.
Connellan was also ordered to remain on the sex offenders’ register for the next five years, and was also made the subject of a barring order - preventing him from working with children - to run for the same period of time.