Anthony Fuggle- sentenced at Kingston Crown Court. Image: Met Police.

A former teacher who stored over 2,000 indecent images of children on his computers at school and home has been given a suspended jail sentence at Kingston Crown Court.

58 year old Anthony Fuggle from Sandy Lane, Sutton, taught classics at Colet Court, the junior division of St Paul’s Preparatory School in Barnes.

The school’s alumni include the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

His four month term has been suspended for two years.

In September 2013, IT maintenance was carried out at the school and, in the process, a number of indecent images of boys were discovered on Fuggle’s work computer.

The school reported the matter to the police.

The Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command (SOECA) formed part of Operation Winthorpe – an investigation into a number of allegations of non-recent sexual abuse alleged to have taken place in the Barnes area.

Detectives seized Fuggle’s work computer and a computer from his home, on which they found yet more indecent images of children.

The children in the pictures on his computers were between 12 and 16 years old.

Fuggle pleaded guilty to 10 charges of making indecent photographs of children and five counts of possessing indecent photographs of children.

His lawyer had told the court he’d been trying to find treatment, ‘but there is a limit to actual help he can find at this stage.’

He was given a community order, a supervision order and sexual offences prevention order, and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.

The investigating officer, Detective Constable Ben Lamkin, of SOECA said:

It’s important to remember that the children in the pictures have been exploited and abused for the gratification of Fuggle and others like him.

A spokeswoman for the school said its safeguarding systems had worked effectively in September 2013, and that since then they had been enhanced further.