North Yorkshire teacher Jamie Wheeler jailed for child sex abuse

When Wheeler's offending was discovered he was suspended from his teaching post, North Yorkshire Police said

A former teacher caught with more than 26,000 indecent images of children and a 'paedophile manual' has been jailed.

Jamie Alexander Wheeler, formerly of Riccal in North Yorkshire, admitted 22 child sex offences, including engaging in sexual activity with children.

His crimes came to light when a colleague reported seeing inappropriate images on his laptop.

Wheeler, 32, was jailed at York Crown Court for four years and 10 months on Tuesday.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and received a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

During searches police found indecent images of youngsters on 33 devices, including laptops, phones and memory sticks, belonging to Wheeler.

A total of 4,721 of the pictures were classified as the most serious by police and depicted the worst kind of child abuse.

'Sickening'

Wheeler pleaded guilty earlier this year to three counts of downloading indecent images of children, six counts of sexual touching and eight counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

He also admitted two counts of taking an indecent photo of a child and two counts of meeting a child to engage in a sexual act.

During his arrest officers found the manual which went into detail about how to groom children in the lead up to sexually abusing them.

Det Con Claire Hudson, of York and Selby CID, said the images found on devices owned by Wheeler, who had been living in Kippax in Leeds, depicted "sickening and very distressing images".

"Behind every image is a terrified child that has suffered in the worst possible way.

She added: "I hope Wheeler uses his time in prison to take make use of the help available to prevent re-offending in the future."