Former deputy headteacher who shared child sex abuse videos while high on drugs sentenced to 2 years in prison
A deputy headteacher who shared child sex abuse videos while high on Class A drugs, and previously pleaded guilty to a plethora of charges after his arrest in February 2018, has been sentenced.
According to The Independent, 50-year-old Paul Newbury regularly used a video conferencing platform to view, discuss, and share disturbing images of young children being sexually abused by other pedophiles when he was an associate headteacher at the Acland Burghley School in Camden, North London.
Prosecutors told Southwark Crown Court that undercover officers had infiltrated the chat rooms he frequented and filmed him sitting naked on his sofa, using cocaine and methamphetamine, as he watched a live video of a girl around eight-years-old being abused.
They also brought up how Newbury was a member of several closed pedophile groups on a secure messaging application where he discussed and exchanged child abuse material with several others from all over the world.
He was also responsible for inviting other pedophiles to join these groups — one of which was allegedly named 'Love Boys' — using an online nickname 'north London,' which would eventually be used by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to track him to his Wood Green, London home.
When officers raided his residence, they found 717 mg of cocaine, crystal meth, chem sex drug GHB, and methedrone, and more than 2,000 child sexual abuse images and videos ranging from category A (the most severe) to category C.
However, there was no evidence indicating Newbury was in sexual contact with any of the children at Acland Burghley, from where he was fired following his arrest, and none linking him to the school.
"Though his offending was not connected to his school, he is guilty of a tremendous betrayal of trust," said NCA operations manager Graham Ellis following his arrest. "The NCA and our law enforcement partners will not stop pursuing child sex offenders and will do everything in our power to bring them to justice."
Newbury pleaded guilty to four counts of making indecent images of children, one of distributing indecent photographs of children, possession of a prohibited image, showing an indecent photograph of a child, and possession of an extreme pornographic image in March. He also admitted to two counts of possessing Class A drugs.
Speaking at his sentencing on Thursday, May 23, Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Russell Tyner said, "Some of these videos featured very young and vulnerable children in visible distress, which Newbury then shared widely for the twisted gratification of himself and others. The fact he helped fuel this industry while working as a teacher only adds to the grotesque and aggravated nature of the offense."
Newbury was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years and given a sexual harm prevention order.