Ratton School, Eastbourne
PERVERT TEACHER COULD MAKE LIST 99
A TEACHER who narrowly escaped jail for downloading pictures of naked boys from the Internet could be placed on List 99 — a government hitlist which bars sex offenders from working with children.
East Sussex County Council’s education officials this week confirmed they had written to the Department of Education recommending Timothy John Isard, a former teacher at Ratton School, should be placed on the list.
A spokesperson told the Herald, “Tim Isard was a teacher at Ratton School in Eastbourne for nearly 21 years.
“He was dismissed from teaching at the school in July 2006 following a disciplinary dismissal hearing. We wrote to the DfES recommending him for List 99.”
Isard was sentenced by a district judge sitting at Eastbourne last week for downloading pictures of boys, some as young as eight, onto computer equipment.
The court heard on Friday how detectives found more than 160 pictures of boys when they raided the Mill Road home of the former teacher earlier this year. The indecent images were on a laptop, floppy disks and DVDs.
Forty-four-year-old Isard pleaded guilty to eight charges of making indecent photographs of children and two of possessing indecent photographs at an earlier court appearance and was back in court last week to be sentenced.
Claire Prodger, prosecuting, said Isard was caught when police were tipped off that he had used his credit card to access a website which contained indecent images of children.
“Officers seized computer equipment which contained 168 images of boys aged eight to 15 years old,” said Miss Prodger.
“When he was interviewed by officers he admitted viewing images of boys but said he believed them to be 11 years old. Some of the images showed sexual activity but he told the detectives he was not interested in sexual activity between adults and children.
“At the time of the police investigation he was a teacher at a local school. He told the officers he had viewed the images when he was unhappy or under the influence of drink.”
The prosecutor added there is a scale of seriousness for such images and the ones found on the computer equipment were mainly Level 1, the lower end of the scale, but there were also Level 2 and Level 3 images.
Linda Kerry, defending, said Isard had been teaching for 21 years but as a result of the police investigation had lost his job at Ratton.
“There is no suggestion of improper conduct when Mr Isard was working at the school,” said Miss Kerry. “He is very well though of by ex-pupils and colleagues. In fact as a result of the publicity surrounding the case he has received a number of character references. As soon as Mr Isard was charged with these matters he went to see is GP and has been referred for counselling sessions.”
Miss Kerry said Isard was now on state benefits.
District judge Roger Ede said he had been considering imposing a suspended prison sentence.
“I do have discretionary powers and I have taken into account that this matter has marked the end of your teaching career and your character references are very impressive,” said the district judge. “You have given a valued service as a teacher and helped a lot of children.”
Sentencing Isard to a three-year community order, the judge ordered him to attend the Thames Valley Sex Offenders’ Group Work programme.
Isard was also ordered to pay 125 court costs and the judge ordered the material should be destroyed.
Isard’s name will also be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and could be placed on List 99 — a secret register of men and women who are barred from working with children by the Department of Education and Skills (DfES).
More than 80 years old, it is maintained by the Children’s Safeguards Unit at the department and contains the names, aliases, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers of all those forbidden to work with children in schools, social work and voluntary settings.
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