Teacher jailed after being found with missing girl

Ole Steinsland custody photo. He has ginger straggly hair and a beardImage source, Derbyshire Police
Image caption,

Ole Steinsland was jailed for three years on Thursday

  • Published

A primary school teacher has been jailed after police found hundreds of indecent images of children on his phone.

Ole Steinsland, a Norwegian national, was arrested at Manchester Piccadilly railway station on 11 July after he was found with a 16-year-old girl from Derbyshire who had been reported missing.

Derbyshire Police said checks of the 46-year-old's phone discovered hundreds of indecent images of children, including some showing children as young as three.

He was jailed for three years at Derby Crown Court on Thursday.

'Very dangerous man'

Following Steinsland's arrest, officers made contact with Norwegian police, which confirmed he had been reported missing.

On 27 September, he pleaded guilty to three counts of taking indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possession of extreme pornography and another count of possession of prohibited images of a child.

Steinsland, from Oslo, was also handed a lifelong sexual harm prevention order along with a restraining order preventing him from having any contact with the teenager.

The force added Steinsland was told he would be deported when he was released from prison.

Det Con Izabel Fowkes, who led the investigation, described him as "clearly a very dangerous man".

She said: "Examination of his phone following his arrest showed he was in contact with a number of children online - including in Chile - and I have no doubt he would have continued attempting to find victims to abuse.

"The fact that Steinsland is a primary school teacher, a position that holds such trust, also magnifies his crimes."

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