A CAMPAIGNER for abuse victims today welcomed a decision to ban a teacher from working with children after indecent images "appeared" on his home computer.

Nicholas Rowley, an IT teacher at Joseph Rowntree School in York, said his career lies "in ruins" after a few minutes looking at an adult website which led to pictures of underage girls being downloaded to his hard drive.

The 26-year-old walked free from court yesterday and will not have to register as a sex offender, after a judge accepted his crimes were "at the bottom end of the scale".

But he was placed on "List 99", banning him from working with children indefinitely, and is expected to lose his job once disciplinary procedures are finished.

Kevin Young, York spokesman for Survivors North East, a support group for victims of abuse, said today it was crucial that putting such offenders on List 99 meant they would never work with children again.

He said: "People in a position of trust and authority who have shown they have an unhealthy interest in young children are more accountable than window cleaners.

"It is only fit and proper that they

are kept away from children - that is all that we ask."

The court's decision came as the Government announced plans to tighten up the vetting of teachers and set up an online database of sex offenders allowing parents to check out nannies and home tutors.

Rowley, who received a conditional discharge for 12 months, said afterwards: "I would warn people against the dangers of using adult chat rooms on the internet, as people do not realise what can happen.

"This has destroyed my career and I am a different person at the end of this than I was at the beginning."

But the defendant, of Alma Terrace, Selby, added: "My family have been extremely supportive of me throughout this, including my wife, and they have helped me in any way possible."

Rowley admitted three counts of making indecent images of girls at a hearing in January, but said the pictures were posted on the Chatopolis website by someone else.

The photographs are levels one and two on a scale of ten for child pornography - which include non erotic and semi-naked or naked pictures of anyone under 18.

His barrister, Stephen Duffield, told York Crown Court he pleaded guilty on the basis he returned to the site knowing what had happened before.

Judge Paul Hoffman said Rowley had been of "first class character" but added the offences "helped to perpetuate the abuse of children".

Joseph Rowntree School's head teacher, Hugh Porter, said: "The school governors and the local authority will be taking this judgement and sentence into account when they make decisions about Mr Rowley's future."

Sex offenders list swells

A CHANGE in the law has led to more people being put on the Sex Offenders' Register for relatively minor offences.

Almost 350 registered sex offenders live in York and North Yorkshire.

People cautioned with sex offences, or convicted but not jailed, are often put on the register for at least two years.

Peeping toms and flashers can be added to the list since the law changed in May 2004. The decision to put someone found with child porn on the register usually depends on the number and severity of the images.

Plumber Derek Lawrence Gunnee, 58, of Kingsway North, Clifton, escaped being put on the register after pleading guilty to 16 charges of downloading child porn and one of possessing child porn.

But Paul Reast, 44, Manor Farm Close, Carlton, near Selby, was put on the register for life, and jailed for a year, after he pleaded guilty to 18 offences of making indecent photographs of children,

Former University of York lecturer Keith Slingsby Burton was placed on the list for ten years and served an eight-month jail term last winter for 17 internet child porn convictions after police found nearly 2,500 pictures of children being abused or in sexual or erotic poses.

Other people on the register include Kerry Husband, 29, formerly of Hessay Place, Chapelfields, York who kissed a 14-year-old boy in the street after drinking eight or nine shots of vodka, and Monk Father Piers Grant-Ferris, who was jailed for two years after admitting 20 indecent assaults on boys at Ampleforth College.

Updated: 09:33 Wednesday, March 01, 2006