Head who downloaded child images banned from teaching

Tom Singleton admitted the offences following an 18-month investigation by the National Crime Agency

A head teacher who was jailed for downloading more than a million indecent images of children has been banned from teaching for life.

Tom Singleton, 43, of Framlingham, Suffolk, previously admitted eight charges including owning a "paedophile manual" and was jailed for five years in 2022.

A professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency met on 2 August of this year to consider whether the Secretary of State should ban him from the profession for life.

The final decision was made by David Oatley, on behalf of the Secretary of State, who said a ban was "necessary".

Singleton was sentenced at Ipswich Crown in October 2022

The panel said Singleton had fallen "significantly short of the standards expected" of a teacher.

Mr Oatley described Singleton's misconduct as "particularly serious" and said the order would protect future children and safeguard pupils.

"In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order, in order to maintain public confidence in the profession," he added.

Singleton cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children's home in England.

He would not be allowed a review period either, which meant he could not make an application in the future to have the prohibition order reviewed and set aside.

Ipswich Crown Court previously heard Singleton's offences involved more than 20,000 category A images of children - considered the most extreme content.

The court heard in one case, Singleton had also superimposed the face of a former girl pupil on three category A images, creating "pseudo images".

Her image had been taken from a photograph of a school Remembrance Day event.

Police found a total of 1,050,448 Category A, B and C images of children in Singleton's possession.

The court also heard how the 170-page "manual" included guidance on how to target single mothers of young children.

During his sentencing, Singleton was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.