Former college teacher from South Yorkshire had 8,688 indecent images of children

John Quail, aged 42, of Gallow Tree Road, near The Brecks, in Rotherham, was found by police to have thousands of accessible and deleted inaccessible category A, B and C indecent images on five electronic devices at his home, according to a Sheffield Crown Court hearing on April 14.

Neil Coxon, prosecuting, said: “The police were in receipt of information in relation to activity at this defendant’s home address in connection with indecent images of children.”

Mr Coxon added police also discovered that Quail, who worked as a teacher at a college, had indecent images of children on a hard-drive at his work in Derby.

The court heard 8,688 images were found relating to 49 accessible moving images, seven inaccessible moving images and 1,590 from category A; 21 accessible moving images, four inaccessible moving images and 2,027 inaccessible still images from category B; and 39 accessible moving images, two inaccessible moving images and 4,849 inaccessible images.

Quail, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images relating to categories A, B and C after the images had been created or uploaded between February, 2015, and September, 2020.

Richard English, defending, said Quail resigned from his job and is now a delivery driver and none of his former pupils were exposed to the material.

He added: “He has lost his good character and his career and he has been exposed to the opprobrium that many would say follows from this kind of offending.”

Mr English said Quail had suffered a serious motorcycle accident in 2013 and a subsequent breakdown; he got drawn into pornography and lost control and he has been left with a deep sense of guilt and shame.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC told Quail: “Over a five-year period you became a member of a web or chatroom whereby those who joined it expressed an interest in this form of material.”

He added that images were sent to Quail and he deleted most of them as can be seen from the number of inaccessible images but some accessible images remained.

Judge Richardson told Quail: “There can be no doubt whatsoever – I, having seen a report of some of the material, particularly category A material – that exceptionally young children were sexually abused in the most grotesque fashion. It was deeply disturbing.

“Those were real children. They were being abused. It was being filmed by truly wicked individuals who if they could be brought to justice in this country or any other country where they operated would doubtless receive exceptionally long prison sentences.

“You and others, by doing as you did in exchanging and accessing this material – even though it was more or less immediately deleted – aid and abet that vile, wicked industry. Thus you bear responsibility and culpability.”

Judge Richardson added: “You were simply doing what you were doing – consumed into a vortex of depravity from which you could not escape and down you went.”

He sentenced Quail to 16 months of custody suspended for two years with a rehabilitation requirement and the defendant has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.