Former school bus driver jailed over indecent child images
Robert John James Arnold was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday
- Published
A former school bus driver from County Tyrone has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after pleading guilty to 10 counts of possessing indecent images of children.
Robert John James Arnold, 48, of Colhoun Terrace in Mountjoy is already serving a prison term after admitting 17 similar charges, for which he was sentenced earlier in September.
At Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday, he was handed a further sentence for possessing 246 indecent images.
Some of the images were "upskirting" photographs taken of girls who were passengers on a school bus he was driving.
The judge said his offending was indicative of "inappropriate sexual interest in young girls".
She added that he was in a position of trust as a bus driver and abused that in order to carry out the crimes, which the judge described as an "established pattern of sexual abuse offending".
The court was told the images were discovered after police were called to Curry's amusement park in Portrush in April 2022 over concerns Arnold was taking photographs of young girls.
Photos of girls' backsides, which had been covertly taken, were found on his phone.
Police told him to delete the images but while he was doing so they noticed what seemed to be an indecent image and seized the device.
Category A indecent images
This led to hundreds more indecent images being found.
Three of the images for which he was sentenced on Tuesday for possessing were category A - the most serious category.
These images were possessed by him but not created by him.
The judge said that he had shown remorse.
She said at the time of his arrest he said he did not have an insight into the impact of his behaviour but he did now.
She added: "The defendant failed to consider child victims of his offending and that they were being abused for his own sexual gratification."
Arnold was handed a sentence of 12 months on counts one to three, 10 months on counts four to six and 10 months on counts seven to 10, to run concurrently.
He had previously admitted 17 charges - comprising 10 counts of possessing indecent images of children, three counts of possessing prohibited images of children and four counts of committing an act outraging public decency.