A former Shropshire college physical education teacher has admitted having more than 130 images of child porn on his computer.

Geoffrey Graham, 53, a former sports lecturer at Walford and North Shropshire College in Oswestry and former manager of Ellesmere Rangers Football Club, was yesterday banned from ever working with children again and prohibited from accessing the internet for the next five years.

Graham, from Tan y Foel, Bryn Cain, Llansantffraid, admitted five charges of making indecent images of children and one of possessing indecent images of children.

He was placed on a 18-month community order and told to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.

The case came to light when he was cautioned by police for writing indecent comments of a sexual nature over the internet.

Obscene

Mold Crown Court heard yesterday he posted a picture of a teenage male as his means of identification and then went on to leave obscene comments.

Officers then searched his home and found 134 indecent images of children aged between 10 and 15. Young children were in underwear and older teenagers were naked, prosecutor Sion ap Mihangel told the court.

He had created files including one called “college sports” and some files had been received using Yahoo, which showed that he was actually corresponding with others.

In addition to the images on the computer, police found images which had been downloaded from a digital camera.

They did not form part of the charges but were part of the background of how a man in his employment was behaving at the time, said the prosecutor.

The court heard they showed school sporting activity and the officer in the case had described them as inappropriate, some showing teenage girls in extremely short skirts.

The photographs had been taken surreptitiously and some showed girls in netball games. One young female was bending over.

Judge Philip Hughes told him the offences normally attracted a sentence of imprisonment.

But the judge said he had pleaded guilty and the case was at the lower end of its kind.

The judge ordered him to register as a sex offender for the next five years.

By Sue Austin