Suffolk teacher admits string of child sex offences

Mark Langford tried to convince his victim to lie to police about his offending

A teacher has admitted a string of child sex offences including possession of thousands of child abuse images and sexually assaulting a pupil.

Mark Langford, 55, was investigated after the National Crime Agency (NCA) received a report of a user having child abuse material.

The agency then found he had groomed and sexually assaulted a teenage pupil almost 20 years ago.

Langford will be sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on 25 September.

The teacher, formerly of Beccles, Suffolk, had written a letter to his victim last year in which he told them what to say to investigators, the NCA said.

Langford wrote: "Before you talk to him, please remember that it is his job to convict me - please do not give him any accidental ammunition against me."

The letter added: "You can tell him you know I'm a porn addict, and that I was arrested for having indecent images of children. Don't forget the 'arrested for' bit - don't say I did it, or that I confessed to you, because that might drag you into court as a witness."

Before his arrest, Langford, now of Ingleton, North Yorkshire, told officers: "It's all in there, I know what you're looking for, I've made a mistake and ruined everything".

Officers found 2,178 indecent images of children on five electronic devices, a further 199 prohibited images - and 109 extreme images.

'Despicable and manipulative'

Langford exchanged images on various sites and accessed a cloud-based storage platform used by paedophiles to trade child sexual abuse material, the NCA said.

He was also found to have spoken online with others about sexual abuse, including conversations about child rape, encouraging abuse of children and tips on where to find child sexual abuse online.

He appeared at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday where he admitted 17 counts including indecent assault of a child under 16, indecency with a child, perverting the cause of justice, making, possession and distribution of indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.

Langford was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the same court on 25 September.

NCA operations manager Holly Triggs said: "Mark Langford grossly abused his position of trust.

"In short, his offending was despicable and manipulative. This was evident from the way he attempted to coerce his victim into lying about his offending and the explicit conversations he had with other paedophiles online."

Langford was dismissed by his employer in January last year, the NCA said.