Child porn teacher, 60, jailed for 10 months

A former assistant headteacher who pleaded guilty to a string of child porn offences was jailed for 10 months today.

Kenneth Browne, who worked at Dorothy Stringer High School in Brighton, last month admitted six counts of possessing indecent images of children and six counts of making indecent images of children.

Investigators from Sussex Police's online investigation team arrested the 60-year-old at his home in Havelock Road, Brighton, on July 29, 2009 and seized computer equipment.

Browne, now of South Row, Blackheath, south east London, was sacked as a teacher soon afterwards and moved away from the coast.

Police said the offences were all internet-related, with the making offences relating to the transferring of images on to a memory stick.

The pictures were of young girls aged from 10 to 13 and did not involve physical assaults or contact with the children. They also did not involve children at the school, Sussex Police added.

Browne was also served with an indefinite Sexual Offence Prevention Order (SOPO), required to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years, and banned for life from working with children, police said.

Following sentencing at Hove Crown Court, Detective Inspector Ali Eaton said: "This was a complex and detailed investigation and the result reflects the seriousness of the offences.

"Although the majority of the images were not of the most extreme type, it must be understood that every such image represents child abuse.

"We will continue to follow up all such reports and prosecute whenever the evidence can be obtained."