A former primary school teacher attended Southwark crown court today to be sentenced after pleading guilty to the possession of indecent images of children and unlawful sending of indecent images.
Mr Daniel Craig Jones was arrested In October of 2021 after the Met police conducted a raid of Mr Jones’s home. Mr Jones was sent to Croydon magistrates court however, despite him pleading guilty to all charges he was sent to Southwark crown court, as the magistrates felt there sentencing powers were not sufficient.
Two of Mr Jones’s devices were seized both his laptop and mobile phone, containing a combined total of 211 images including 80 category A images (considered the most graphic of the three categories). Prior to Mr Jones’s arrest he worked as a primary school teacher, “which could be considered the most disturbing aspect of this case” , said the judge. Mr Jones initially attended Croydon magistrates court on the 4th July 2022 and pleaded guilty to all charges.
In the crown court Mr Jones said that he “genuinely has no sexual interest in children” denying that he gained any sexual gratification from these images at all. Wearing a dark blue satin suit and a bland expression on his face, Mr Jones sat in court composed. Aged 34 at the time of the arrest, now 36, Mr Jones has since relocated to Wales from London to live with his parents, and now works as a sales associate at a home furniture store.
Since Mr Jones’s trial, Mr Jones’s defence barrister told the court that “ One mitigating factor is that Mr Jones has lost a career he loved, therefore you must understand he has been punished in some way already.” Mr Barret then said: Mr jones has engaged in therapy, and he had scored low on his sexual contact offending test. Thus, the defence argued for a community order as opposed to a custodial sentence as well as a general rehabilitation programme called maps for change, this was in place of “Horizon”, a rehabilitation programme specifically cartered towards se offenders. In response to the defence’s argument, the Judge said:”I’m not going to send this defendant to prison, however I’m not happy with this recommendation.”
The prosecution also protested this recommendation, they said: “well why is it only a community order, it crosses the custodial threshold” referring to the crime Mr Jones plead guilty to. Mr Jones was sentenced to an 18 month suspended sentence, suspended for 21 months, as well as 35 days on the sex offender rehabilitation programme and 80 hours of unpaid work. While Mr Jones did receive a custodial sentence, it was a suspended sentence meaning, if he does not break the terms of his suspended sentence for a period of 21 months, he will not go to prison.
The Judge, Mr Tomlinson agreed with the prosecution in that despite the fact Mr Jones’s crimes do cross the custodial threshold, in the current climate the pressure on the prison system. According to the House of Commons library a record 88,225 people are currently in prison in England and Wales, leading to increased overcrowding across prisons in the UK. To free up space in prisons, the government has plans to suspend sentences less than 12 months and to release foreign prisoners who are occupying UK prisons.
What this will mean for British citizens is unknown however, the Home office say that this decision hopes to better the lives of British citizens by keeping high risk criminals behind bars.
