Ex-Classics master Anthony Paul Fuggle, 64, who taught for two decades at the junior division of St. Paul’s School, whose alumni include former Chancellor George Osborne, walked free with a suspended prison sentence.
Fuggle, of Aristotle Road, Clapham pleaded guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court to a charge of making 73 indecent Category C photographs of children on April 12, 2018.
Six years ago he received four months imprisonment, suspended for two years, after admitting six counts of possessing indecent images of children, plus seven counts of making indecent images of children.
The charges totalled more than a thousand still and moving images of children.
“This is an indecent images case,” prosecutor Sudara Weerasena told the court today. “An allegation was made against this defendant that led to police officers attending his address.
“Items were seized, including a laptop, and on it were the images of boys aged approximately nine to fifteen years-old provocatively posing in swimming trunks and underwear.
“Some where lying provocatively on a bed and one was squatting in a grassy area fully exposed.
“What is relevant is that this defendant has a previous conviction in 2015 and received a suspended prison sentence for similar matters, a total of thirteen separate offences of indecent images regarding children.”
Multiple teachers, who worked at the Barnes school, have been investigated and prosecuted under Operation Winthorope, an investigation into historical sexual abuse at St. Paul’s and Colet Court.
Fuggle is currently on the sex offenders register and reports to Brixton Police Station.
Magistrate Timothy Keay told Fuggle: “This isn’t the first time you have been before the court for offences of this nature.
“On this occasion the offence was not quite as serious as before, but we have to be mindful of the previous conviction and give some uplift to the sentence.
“The offence is so serious it crosses the custody threshold and we are sentencing you to four months imprisonment, however we found this can be suspended for two years to allow you to continue the treatment you have already begun.
“You have to sign the sex offenders register again within the next three days and you are disqualified from working with children for the rest of your life and you are subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the rest of your life.”
Fuggle must also attend a Probation Service sex offenders programme for 31days and complete 30 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement, plus pay £85 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.
His lawyer Max Hardy told the court: “I ask for the maximum credit for the guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and the fact the defendant has recognised his wrong-doing and taken advantage of courses treatment available.
“He is very keen indeed to understand where this comes from to ensure it does not continue into the future.
“They are Category C images, the lowest category and although clearly unacceptable and unlawful, sadly people have come before the courts in possession of more serious images.
“The defendant accepts he laboured under the wrong impression these were less unacceptable than may have been because they were clothed and accepts this is the wrong analysis and approach.
“This represents a de-escalation in offending and of course the court wants to see an end of offending and that goal and possibility is in sight.
“He has sought out treatment and a better understanding of where these urges come from so he can equip himself with the tools to prevent relapses in the future.
“He needs to work on his sense of social isolation and boredom.
“Since the loss of his job that was very precious to him and ended in the most sad and regrettable circumstances he has returned to bookkeeping and completed the academic side of that course.
“This is not a man who is going to be sitting at home alone with his computer.
“The police visited him in 2018 and for three years this has weighed very heavily on him and given him an opportunity to reflect on this conduct.”
In 2017 former master Patrick Marshall, 74, who taught at St. Paul’s, received 18 years imprisonment for abusing ten boys in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
In 2016 ex-sports teacher Michael Ellis, 75, received eight-and-a-half years for indecently assaulting two boys and former teacher David Sansom-Mallett, 74, was jailed for 14 years for abusing multiple boys.
Another teacher, ex-history head Keith Perry, 77, was convicted of possessing 600 child abuse images on memory sticks hidden inside an umbrella at his home.
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