Stokesley teacher banned after child abuse images conviction

Matthew Walker was arrested just weeks into his job at Stokesley School

A teacher who downloaded and then shared child abuse images using peer-to-peer software has been banned from classrooms in England.

Matthew Walker, who worked at Stokesley School, near Middlesbrough, claimed the images were already on a hard-drive he had bought.

He admitted three counts of possessing indecent images and was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence in 2021.

The 31-year-old has now been banned by the Teaching Regulation Agency.

As part of his court sentence, he was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.

'No remorse'

Having qualified in 2018, Mr Walker was arrested by North Yorkshire Police in February 2019 just a month after taking on a role as a cover supervisor and temporary art teacher at Stokesley School.

He was sacked within weeks and Teesside Crown Court heard he had almost 150 photographs and videos on a computer seized by officers, with nearly all of them classed in the most serious category.

Mr Walker told officers he had bought computer parts on the deep web, as that had been the only place he could find them for "decent prices" as he sought to mine crypto-currency Bitcoin.

He then claimed to have been trying to be thorough in attempting to delete everything from them using specialist software.

The disciplinary panel said in communications with Mr Walker in November 2022, he told them the pressure of teacher training had been "one of the factors" behind his actions.

He then claimed: "I don't actually have that type of interest in children, I'm not a danger to anyone, including children."

Finding Mr Walker had breached teachers' standards, the panel ruled his behaviour was "fundamentally incompatible" with a position in schools.

It said he had "demonstrated limited insight", had not shown "any evidence of remorse" and failed to understand "that children depicted in the images were victims of sexual exploitation".

The panel's report added: "The number and nature of Category A images found indicated that this was a case of the utmost seriousness."

Its prohibition order prevents Mr Walker from teaching indefinitely in any school, sixth-form college, youth accommodation or children's home in England.