Teacher banned for downloading hundreds of child abuse images

A teacher who “led a double life” downloading hundreds of indecent images of children and fantasising about sexually abusing a teenage girl has been banned from the profession for life. Tom Ivey, who has changed his name to Sam Thomas, committed the offences when he was head of history and associate headteacher at Abbeywood Community School in Stoke Gifford.

The dad of two, now 43, was given a 20-week jail sentence suspended for two years in December 2023 after he court and videos that police found on his Samsung mobile phone. The images were of girls aged 13 to 17 posing naked and in a sexualised manner, Bristol magistrates Avon & Somerset Police heard at the time.

Now a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) professional conduct panel has barred him from the profession with no right to reapply. It means he is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth-form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Ivey, whose address at the time of his court case was High Street, Cam, Dursley, had worked as a teacher at the school for almost 19 years. Olympus Academy Trust CEO Dave Baker told Bristol Live that the trust took all the appropriate action by liaising with the police and other authorities and that it referred the matter to the TRA.

Mr Baker said: “It’s a relief to us that the offences and the case did not relate to his role at school, so the safety and wellbeing of staff and students were not compromised. He was really credible, he was well liked at school, and so he was clearly leading a double life.”

Mr Baker said the panel’s decision earlier this month, which has just been published, was the “right outcome”. The TRA report said the panel agreed to a request from Ivey to consider the allegations without a public hearing after he admitted the allegations and conviction.

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It said: “The panel noted that Mr Ivey’s actions were relevant to teaching, working with children and/or working in an education setting. The offences concerned indecent images of victims who were of school age, which therefore directly engaged the issue of working within an education setting.

“The panel noted that the behaviour involved in committing the offence could have had an impact on the safety or security of pupils and/or members of the public, given the nature of the offences. The panel found that the seriousness of the offending behaviour that led to the convictions was relevant to Mr Ivey’s ongoing suitability to teach.”

It said public confidence in teaching could be “seriously weakened” if Ivey’s conduct was not treated with the utmost seriousness. The report said: “The panel was of the view that prohibition was both proportionate and appropriate.

“The panel decided that the public interest considerations outweighed the interests of Mr Ivey. The nature of his offending was a significant factor in forming that opinion.

“The panel found that Mr Ivey was responsible for sexual misconduct of a serious nature which revolved around images of children. It therefore felt that this was directly contrary to any prospective review period.

“The panel also noted that it had seen no evidence of insight or remorse from Mr Ivey and therefore could not take any potential remediation from him into consideration.” Ivey was arrested after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the US told Avon & Somerset Police that he was uploading child abuse images online, Bristol magistrates heard in December 2023.

The court heard that there was also evidence of the ex-teacher communicating with others about a teenage relative days before his arrest in 2022. Ivey claimed to have sexually abused his niece but police inquiries confirmed that the child was fictional.

A list of internet search terms he used included “teens”, “girls” and “incest”, the prosecution said. Ivey was assessed as posing a medium risk of serious harm, specifically to girls aged 13 to 17.

In addition to the suspended prison sentence, he was ordered to complete 40 rehabilitation activity days and comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years. The former teacher was also given Sex Offender Notification requirements for seven years and told to pay a victim surcharge of £154 and prosecution costs of £85.