An assistant head who was caught with more than 11,500 child abuse images has been banned from teaching – after he was spared jail over the ‘horrific’ sexual offences.
Gareth Mellor, 45, admitted to two charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing them and was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence at Leeds Crown Court in December 2023.
He was arrested at his home in Staffordshire in May 2021 after he paid for indecent images of minors via an encrypted cloud storage service.
Mellor had worked as a teacher at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield, none of his offending, which happened between between January 2014 and May 2021, was related to his pupils, according to the National Crime Agency.
He was the designated safeguarding lead at the school as well as the pastoral lead for 320 students.
The 45-year-old has now been banned from teaching indefinitely after a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found that a prohibition order was proportionate due to the seriousness, duration and volume of his crimes.
Thousands of photos, which were not taken by Mellor, have been found on his devices, with the majority being of teenage girls.
About 520 pictures and videos were Category A material, 619 Category B and 10,450 Category C, according to the panel decision.
Gareth Mellor (pictured), 45, admitted to two charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing them and was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence at Leeds Crown Court in December 2023
Mellor had worked as a teacher at Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield, none of his offending, which happened between between January 2014 and May 2021, was related to his pupils, according to the National Crime Agency
When Mellor paid a provider known to supply indecent material, the National Crime Agency traced the email address used for the transaction back to the teacher and arrested him.
At the time, Danielle Pownall, NCA operations manager, said: ‘Gareth Mellor worked with children nearly every day and was entrusted to protect them. This investigation showed that he deeply betrayed this trust through amassing a huge collection of material showing the horrific abuse of children.’
Mellor admitted that he had attempted to delete content from his mobile phone, however police were still able to recover a significant amount of indecent material, according to the TRA panel decision.
In December 2023, Mellor was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence as well as 200 hours of unpaid work, a programme activity and a rehabilitation activity.
He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for a period of 10 years and his name was added to the sex offenders register.
‘Although Mr Mellor’s conduct took place outside of the School environment, the panel noted that the behaviour involved in committing the offence could have had an impact on the safety of pupils and/or members of the public given the nature and the gravity of the offences,’ the TRA decision read.
‘The panel also noted that within the sentencing hearing there was reference to Mr Mellor searching for pupils at the School on social media platforms albeit that the offences did not involve pupils.’
The panel did not receive a testimonial or reflection from Mellor or ‘anything which confirmed that he had completed the rehabilitation requirements of his sentence’.
‘Mellor is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England,’ decision maker Sarah Buxcey said on behalf of the Secretary of State.
‘Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved against him, I have decided that Mr Mellor shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.’
