Infant school head teacher is jailed for two-and-half years for making abuse images of children

Infant school head teacher, 31, is jailed for two-and-half years for making and publishing ‘horrific’ abuse images of children as young as four while he was ‘safeguarding champion’

  • Daniel Chapman had been a principal at Hilltop Infant School in Wickford, Essex
  • The 31-year-old had appointed himself as a ‘safeguarding champion’ for pupils
  • None of the pupils at the school where Chapman was principal were victims 
  • Has now been banned from teaching for life and is on the sex offender’s register

Daniel Chapman (pictured above) has been banned from teaching for life

An infant school head teacher has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after making and publishing depraved child abuse images while he was also working as a ‘safeguarding champion’.

Daniel Chapman was secretly gratifying himself with the cruel sexual exploitation of children as young as four, police said.

The 31-year-old had been working at the Hilltop Infant School in Wickford, Essex.

In May police executed a warrant to search his property and seized a mobile phone and laptop, both were found to have contained dozens of indecent videos and images of children.

He was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday after admitting 12 offences including making indecent photographs of children, publishing obscene articles, and possessing extreme pornographic images, Essex Police added.

No pupils at the school in Wickford were victims.

Detective Constable Nick Riley said the six-month investigation ‘involved some of the most horrific social media messaging concerning child abuse that I had ever investigated’.

Chapman had been working at Hilltop Infant School in Wickford, Essex (pictured above)

Chapman had been working at Hilltop Infant School in Wickford, Essex (pictured above) 

He said: ‘Daniel Chapman had taken it upon himself to become a safeguarding champion for the school, whilst he was simultaneously involved in activities which promoted the abuse of children, some of whom were of a similar age to those he was meant to be safeguarding.

‘He portrayed himself as a respectable head teacher, however, was found to have been using messaging applications and social media to engage in making, possessing and publishing indecent images of children as young as four.’

‘I am delighted this individual is now paying the price for his appalling actions.

‘Every time an indecent image of a child is viewed, it re-victimises that child over and over again.’

Chapman, of Chelmsford, was also put on the sex offender’s register for 10 years, given a decade-long sexual harm prevention order, and banned from teaching for life.

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