Former primary school headteacher Thomas Singleton, from Stowmarket, jailed after being found with 'paedophile manual' and over one million indecent images of children

A former primary school headteacher has been jailed after being caught with more than one million indecent images of children and a 'paedophile manual'.

Thomas Singleton, 41, of Stowmarket, was found in possession of a 170-page 'paedophile manual', including detailed instructions on how to abuse children and avoid detection.

At the time of the offences, Singleton was working as a headteacher and safeguarding lead at a primary school.

He was sentenced to six years in prison at Ipswich Crown Court today, after pleading guilty to eight charges.

These included taking indecent pseudo-images of a child, possession of a paedophile manual and making indecent images.

The 'pseudo-images' charge relates to pictures he produced himself, in which he super-imposed himself into images so that it appeared he was abusing children.

Singleton was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in February last year.

It was found he had been accessing indecent images of children – and officers also seized a toddler-sized doll from his home.

He had amassed a collection of underwear and clothing for babies and young children.

A range of digital evidence was produced against Singleton, including chat logs featuring fantasies of sexual activity with children.

In addition to his prison sentence, he will be made to register as a sex offender indefinitely, and is now subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

NCA operations manager Michael Parkinson said: "As a safeguarding lead and the head of a primary school, Singleton supposedly represented a dependable figure of safety and trust for young children, their families and the school community.

"This investigation showed he grossly abused that position.

"His house was filled with a large, disturbing collection of items which proved beyond doubt his sexual interest in children.

"Of particular concern was an extensive paedophile manual which offered explicit, practical guidance on how to carry out abuse.

"This case highlights how an offender’s behaviour can escalate, from downloading abuse material to finding a community of like-minded individuals online who normalise and even encourage this criminal behaviour.

"Identifying such individuals at the earliest opportunity and disrupting this pattern of offending before they can commit real-world abuse is a top priority for the National Crime Agency."