TEACHER MARK EDWARDS-JONES CAUGHT WITH CHILD PORN IMAGES TOLD POLICE HE THOUGHT IT WAS LEGAL
Mark Edwards-Jones, 59, was a Year Ten science teacher in Potters Bar.Taught pupils aged 14 and 15 at Park Education Support Centre in the town.
His internet service provider told police he was downloading child porn.
Officers swooped on the teacher's home and found more than 200 images.
Edwards-Jones tried to delete images even as police searched his house.
He told officers he thought it was OK to look at such images in his own home.
The tribunal heard he believed viewing such images was legal in private.
Edwards-Jones, a science teacher at the centre, pleaded guilty at Wood Green Crown Court in north London to possessing an indecent photograph or pseudo photograph of a child.
He was handed a supervision requirement for two years, ordered to participate in a sex offenders’ treatment programme, and registered as a sex offender for five years.
The tribunal barred him from ever practicing as a teacher again.
He did not attend the hearing in Coventry and now cannot teach at any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation, or children’s home in England.
He has 28 days to appeal.
