EX-headteacher Thomas Melling, 67, was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court last week, after pleading guilty to five offences relating to indecent images of children,

Melling, of Woolmer Hill Road, Haslemere, was convicted of sexually touching a child in 1999 after kissing one of his pupils. The husband and father of two admitted three counts of making indecent photographs of a child, one count of possessing extreme pornography and a further count of possessing an indecent image of a child.

Melling was found with 912 category A images, the worst level, 622 category B images, 1,268 category C images and two extreme pornographic images involving a dog and a horse. The court heard he was also found with 12 cartoon indecent images of children on two hard drives and a computer seized by police at his hom on April 27.

Messages found on two mobile phones seized revealed he had shown interest in a nine year-old child from a family in Kenya he was sponsoring. Melling was handed a three-year community order and ordered to carry out a 100-day treatment programme, in addition to paying costs of £480.

He was given a 10-year order restricting his use of the internet, banned from travelling to Kenya, and made to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for a decade.

Judge Peter Moss said: “It’s difficult for most people to comprehend why someone would want to look at, let alone store, such material and you definitely stored this material.”