AN EX-HEADTEACHER was told "your disgrace is complete" as he was sentenced for having indecent images of children.

Matthew Shillito will never work as a teacher or with youngsters again, York Magistrates Court heard.

The 43-year-old from Gordon Avenue, Harrogate, denied two charges of having indecent images of children but was convicted at a trial. None of the pictures, which he accessed online, involved children from any of the schools where he taught.

"Your disgrace is complete," district judge Adrian Lower told him. "With the internet comes temptation and you were tempted, despite your denials, to look at images of children, indecent images of children for your own satisfaction."

He made Shillito subject to an 18-month community order with 24 days' rehabilitative activities and 200 hours' unpaid work and ordered him to pay a £60 statutory surcharge and £600 prosecution costs. Shillito was also put on the sex offenders' register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order, both for five years.

His solicitor Kevin Blount said Shillito had retrained so that he could work in a career that did not involve access to children. He had looked at the pictures online and had not downloaded them for viewing later or distributed them.