RESPECTED TEACHER ADMITS TO OWNING 51,000 INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN
A TEACHER who once claimed that children were "over-protected" by modern society yesterday admitted owning 51,000 indecent computer images of youngsters.Simeon Richard Hope, 34, a former Green Party election candidate, also had indecent videos of children, and hundreds of illegal photographs hidden in his loft.
Police found the sordid collection at the home he shared with his wife, Julie, in Trinity Gardens, Willington, County Durham.
Sedgefield Magistrates heard that Hope, a supply teacher and committed environmentalist, had, for some time, been obtaining images from a notorious paedophile ring working through the Internet.
The apparently respectable 34-year-old pillar of the community was caught after 20 police forces across the country collaborated to smash the ring.
When his home was raided last September as part of Operation Queensland, the 34-year-old was working as a teacher in North Tyneside.
A search of his house revealed the full extent of his activities, including 69 child pornography videos and 800 photographs of young girls and boys.
The court was told that Hope even had an image of a young child in her underwear set as his computer screensaver.
Prosecutor David Chadwick stated that "Mr Hope has admitted that looking at these pictures of young children excited him.
He had pictures and videos of both young girls and boys, although he says he is not a homosexual." He also used the Internet to exchange large amounts of paedophile material and actively distributed indecent photographs to others.
Hope, who has been involved in public debates and wrote to The Northern Echo in the past claiming children are "over-protected," pleaded guilty to all charges and will be sentenced later at Durham Crown Court.
None of his charges were linked to his work in the school.
An order was issued prohibiting publication of his new address.
