Assistant head teacher admits child abuse image offences

Gareth Mellor admitted child abuse image offences

An assistant head teacher has admitted making more than 11,500 images and videos of child abuse.

Gareth Mellor, 43, admitted three charges related to the making of indecent images of children at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday.

Mellor, of Pennycroft Road, Uttoxeter, was employed at a high school in Wakefield, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

According to the NCA, none of his offending involved his pupils.

Mellor, who also worked as the safeguarding lead at the school, was tracked down by NCA investigators through a Bitcoin payment.

Officers said Mellor had paid for indecent images of children via an encrypted cloud storage service, leading to his arrest at his Staffordshire home in May 2021.

On his two cloud storage accounts, the NCA uncovered more than 11,500 indecent images and videos of children in categories A, B and C, with A being the most serious.

'Deep betrayal'

The images, which had not been taken by Mellor, were predominantly of teenage girls, the NCA said.

Of the footage found on his devices, 520 images and videos were Category A.

A further 619 Category B and 10,450 Category C images were also uncovered by investigating officers.

Following his arrest and while on bail, Mellor tried to access one of his accounts in order to delete evidence, the NCA said.

NCA operations manager Danielle Pownall said Mellor had been a "committed buyer and consumer of child abuse material" who had "deeply betrayed" the trust bestowed on him in his role as a teacher.

The NCA confirmed a second person, who had also accessed Mellor's cloud storage, was under investigation.