Primary school headmaster who had 170-page paedophile manual jailed
Primary school headmaster, 41, found with a million indecent images of children photoshopped his face and former pupil’s on pictures of young victims being sexually abused and had 170-page paedophile manual titled ‘How to practice child love’
- Thomas Singleton, 41, was jailed for five years today at Ipswich Crown Court
- Police who raided his flat found a toddler-sized doll in a pink dress with plaits
- The 170-page paedophile manual provided guidance on how to abuse children
- He had also superimposed his and a former pupil’s face on an image of abuse
- A handwritten document called ‘Tom’s Action Plan’ named four of his pupils
A former primary school headmaster was found with more than a million indecent images of children and had a paedophile manual titled ‘How to practice child love’.
An examination of Thomas Singleton’s electronic devices found he had superimposed his face and the face of a former pupil on to pictures of children being sexually abused.
Police who raided the flat of Singleton, 41, also found a toddler-sized doll dressed in a pink dress with blonde hair in plaits in his bed.
Singleton, who was also one of the child safeguarding leads at the school, was jailed for five years today at Ipswich Crown Court.
The paedophile manual found on his computer hard drive contained a number of chapters providing guidance on how to sexually abuse children without being caught.
The introduction to the document explained that it was ‘a guide to practicing sex with children without fear of doing harm’.
Former primary school headmaster Thomas Singleton, 41, was found with more than a million indecent images of children and had a paedophile manual titled ‘How to practice child love’
A handwritten document entitled ‘Tom’s Action Plan’ described explicit sex acts with children and mentioned the first names of four of his former pupils.
Officers also recovered a number of online chat logs in which Singleton, who was arrested last February, spoke with other paedophiles about child sexual abuse.
Some chats showed him partaking in ‘age play’, where both users participated in a fantasy in which one of them pretended to be a child engaging in sexual activity with the other.
Devices stored around his home, included documents which described child abuse scenarios and could be ‘personalised’ to include names of the user’s choosing.
These also corresponded to hand-drawn flowcharts in his former home in Stowmarket, Suffolk.
Some of the charts were stored in a his ‘Tom’s Action Folder’ and described detailed sexual acts between the reader and the subject of the flowchart.
Singleton admitted three offences of making indecent images of children, two of taking indecent images, possessing a paedophile manual as well as prohibited and extreme pornographic images.
Recorder Richard Christie said: ‘Fortunately these offences haven’t gone on to lead to actual acts against any of the children in your charge but child pornography is a scourge and has very real victims.
‘For every indecent image you view a child or children have been abused.’
As well as being jailed for five years, Singleton was given an extended licence period of one year because he was regarded as ‘a dangerous offender’.
He was also made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sexual offenders’ register indefinitely.
Experts who examined his laptops and digital storage devices found 20,254 indecent images of children at the most serious Category A level, 21,539 in Category B images and more than one million in the lowest level C category.
They also found 45,216 prohibited images of children and 52 extreme pornographic images as well as 13 Category A pseudo indecent images of a child and 24 pseudo images in Category B.
The court heard that the children whose names were mentioned in the ‘Action Plan’ had been contacted by the police and confirmed that Singleton had not done anything to them.
Officers from the National Crime Agency raided Singleton’s home in February last year after receiving information that devices registered to him at the address had accessed indecent images of children.
Officers also found underwear and clothing for babies and young children, and a silicone sex aid made to resemble a child’s genitals.
Singleton of Framlingham, Suffolk, who does not have any children could not provide any explanation about why he had the doll and clothing.
Singleton, who was also one of the child safeguarding leads at the school, was jailed for five years today at Ipswich Crown Court (above)
He was described as having an ‘obsession’ with collecting indecent images.
The court heard he had resigned from his position at the school, which wasn’t named during the hearing, in March 2020.
Natasha Nair, defending, said he had voluntarily taken steps to address his offending behaviour through therapy since his arrest
She accepted his offending was ‘troubling and disturbing’ and said Singleton recognised the concern it would cause members of the public.
National Crime Agency operations manager Michael Parkinson said after the hearing: ‘As a safeguarding lead and the Head of a primary school, Singleton supposedly represented a dependable figure of safety and trust for young children, their families and the school community.
‘This investigation showed he grossly abused that position.
‘His house was filled with a large, disturbing collection of items which proved beyond doubt his sexual interest in children.
‘Of particular concern was an extensive paedophile manual which offered explicit, practical guidance on how to carry out abuse.
‘This case highlights how an offender’s behaviour can escalate, from downloading abuse material to finding a community of like-minded individuals online who normalise and even encourage this criminal behaviour.
‘Identifying such individuals at the earliest opportunity and disrupting this pattern of offending before they can commit real-world abuse is a top priority for the National Crime Agency.’
Source: Read Full Article