The Sandon School teacher banned after uploading child sex videos

A teacher who uploaded indecent videos of children on the internet has been banned from the classroom.

Christopher Ridgewell, 28, taught at The Sandon School in Chelmsford when he was investigated by the police in 2020.

Officers linked illegal videos being uploaded via messaging app Kik to Mr Ridgewell's address and swooped in to arrest him, a panel heard.

The teacher admitted a series of sexual offences and was banned from the profession indefinitely.

The BBC has approached The Sandon School for comment.

Ridgewell, who started teaching at the school from 1 September 2020, had uploaded indecent videos on 22 July 2020, a Teaching Regulation Agency report said.

The footage involved young girls aged between 12 and 15 years old - the ages of many pupils he would have taught in the secondary school classroom.

Ridgewell said he had started watching illegal pornography involving 14-year-old girls when he was aged 14 and had done so "on and off" over a period of three years.

He then said he started to re-offend in March 2020 as he was "struggling" with his secondary school placement and "felt lonely", the report said.

He told the panel he felt "terrible and disgusted" by his actions.

The teaching ban imposed on Ridgewell prohibited him from teaching indefinitely at any school, college, youth accommodation or children's home in England.

At Colchester Magistrates' Court, in November 2021, he pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images of children, two offences of distributing indecent images of children and a further count of possessing extreme pornographic images.

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