Milton Keynes RE teacher had more than 250 indecent images of children.

Former Religious Education Teacher Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

Philip Allen, a prominent figure in religious education nationally and former teacher at Shenley Brook End School, has been fired from his position and pleaded guilty to charges related to child pornography.

The 48-year-old married man from Potterspury appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court and admitted to six charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing prohibited images.

Allen admitted to possessing 172 "category A" indecent images of children, the most extreme category, as well as 46 category B images and 37 category C images.

Prosecuting, Jerena Tomaszewska stated that Allen's crimes were discovered after police seized his electronic devices during a raid on his home in June. "Images were found on a laptop and individual images found on an external hard drive," she said. "The report shows that some of the images were also backed up from the defendant's iPad."

Allen had been a member of the TES teacher panel and a national TES advisor for key stage 4 religious studies. He was bailed under the condition that he could not come into unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18.

Presiding magistrate Diana Whittaker told Allen, "Our powers of sentencing are insufficient for you, these charges are too serious." She referred Allen to Crown Court, where he faces up to a year in prison.