‘Obsessive’ paedophile teacher in Walthamstow made foul images of children

He tried to say one of them was to ‘prove a point’ for a book he was writing

An ‘obsessive’ paedophile teacher in Walthamstow made foul images of a child, but said one of them was to ‘prove a point’ for a book he was writing. David Taylor had been a teacher at St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School in the North East London neighbourhood since September 2016.

He was arrested by Essex Police at home in 2020 and had all his electronic devices confiscated. The school suspended him three days later.

Taylor tried to argue that the pictures were part of a crusade to “out” the owners of websites ‘that continue to show illegal images, on apparently “legal” sites’. He stated that, at the time, he felt that it was only by confronting those website owners with their images that he would prove the point to them and hopefully get important comments for his book.

As a result he was convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court of four counts of Making Indecent Photograph or Pseudo-Photograph of Children between June 9, 2020, and June 9, 2021, on 12 February 12 last year. The vast majority of the images were category C, with some in category B and three in category A. Taylor was sentenced to a 12-month community order and was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.

During his trial the judge said: “Whatever the motivation, your behaviour is still of real concern. It is clear from all of the information that has been uploaded on your behalf, you have become obsessive and you have appointed yourself as a guardian to children, but you are not a child protection officer, you are not an academic researcher, you are not a police officer, and in fact you probably are not helping. The very fact that in downloading images a market is created, whatever the motivation of the person who downloads them.”

The panel remained concerned about the risk of repetition, given that he was found to have ‘lacked insight’. It added: “The behaviour involved in committing the offence could have had an impact on the safety and/or security of pupils and/or members of the public. Downloading such images fuels a market which perpetrates child abuse”.

It also considered that “there was no evidence that Mr Taylor demonstrated exceptionally high standards in his personal and professional conduct or that he had contributed significantly to the education sector. The panel did not accept that the incident was out of character given the period of time over which the offences were committed’

Taylor was hit with a prohibition order, meaning he is barred from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Keep up with the latest East London news. Sign up to our MyEastLondon newsletter HERE for daily updates and more.