A FORMER school technician who shared online child abuse images has been banned from exchanging child sex fantasies on internet chat rooms.

Daniel Stapleton was working as a laboratory assistant at a school in Newton Abbot when he was caught downloading child images in 2017 and later given a suspended sentence at Exeter Crown Court.

He was made subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) that which enabled police to monitor his online activity and led to officers installing special software on his devices earlier this year.

They detected that he had written child abuse fantasies and posted them online and taken part in discussions of child abuse in paedophile chatrooms.

The police went back to Exeter Crown Court to tighten up the wording of the SHPO by adding two new conditions.

The forbid him engaging in online discussions about child abuse or roleplay and from using internet forums.

Stapleton, aged 48, of Sherwell Lane, Torbay, admitted three counts of making and two if distributing indecent images and was jailed for a year, suspended for 18 months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court in April 2016.

The same judge granted the amendments to the SHPO after an application by Miss Mary McCarthy, acting on behalf of Devon and Cornwall police.

She said: ‘Monitoring software was installed in May this year and it notified the police of his behaviour. He was writing stories about sexual abuse and going into forums in which abuse was being discussed.’

Stapleton was not present in court but sent a message saying he did not object to the changes to the SHPO.

In the original case, the court heard that he was working as a school laboratory technician when he arrested at Coombeshead Academy on May 25, 2017.

An investigation into his computers showed he had used search terms including ‘boy orgy’ and ‘pre-teen goddess’ on the international website Chatstep.

He had downloaded 35 images while using his computer at home and told police he had used the chat site after drinking. Eight images showed very serious abuse and one showed a child of three or four being raped.

He shared 20 images on Chatstep.

He was sent on a sex offenders’ treatment course by Judge Evans, who told him at the time: ‘You have admitted having a fantasy sexual interest in children and admitted viewing images of boys and girls as young as five.

‘It goes without saying that the images are repellent and their production causes appalling harm to very young defenceless children.’

Stapleton also admitted sharing around 20 of the downloaded images on the chat site, leading to the further charge of distribution. Search terms included ‘boy orgy’ and ‘pre-teen goddess’.

He said his interest in children was purely fantasy and would never touch them at the school where he worked. He said:”The real thing does not interest me.’

Mr Paul Dentith, defending, told the 2018 hearing that Stapleton has no previous convictions and had already sought help from a psychotherapist and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s Stop it Now programme.

He said: ‘He was arrested at work but there is no suggestion of any offending while at work. He was suspended immediately following his disclosure to his employers and that was followed by dismissal.’