A 58-year-old former teacher from South Gloucestershire has been given a suspended jail sentence after admitting offences relating to the purchasing of child abuse materials from Canada.

Timothy Arthur, of Staple Hill, admitted 11 counts of making indecent images and was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court earlier today (October 31).

He received a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, a 15-year Sexual Offenders’ Prevention Order (SOPO) and a 24-month community order. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and the judge ordered the destruction of all materials seized.

Arthur was a part-time employee at a South Gloucestershire school at the time of his arrest but he has since resigned.

The charges are in connection with Operation Spade, an international investigation into the purchasing of child abuse materials from Canadian company Azov Films.

Information was submitted by Toronto police via Interpol to the UK. The National Crime Agency passed on details to UK police forces at the end of last year.

Arthur had bought DVDs, CDs and downloads from Azov Films between December 2007 and December 2010, more than 70 of which contained indecent images of children.

He was arrested in February and his home was searched. Officers seized laptops, USB sticks, external hard drives and a large number of printed photos and DVDS/CDs.

The majority of indecent images found were graded between categories 1 to 4. A small number of images were found to be category 5, the most serious level.

Investigating officer Det Con Stuart Brooks said: “When Timothy Arthur was arrested he fully admitted that he’d bought materials from Azov Films.

“Although he made attempts to downplay the seriousness of the images and his motivation for buying them, he accepted his guilt and has now been punished for his crimes.

“Anyone who purchases indecent materials of children plays an active role in fuelling this horrific industry.

“While Arthur may not have known the identities of the children he had indecent images of, the inescapable truth is that they’re real children being sexually exploited and abused.

“Those who create, trade, purchase or share indecent images, videos or downloads featuring children must be brought to justice and we’re committed to doing just that.”