Hartlepool ex-Scout leader avoids jail over 1,500 child abuse images haul

Nigel Shaw amassed a hoard of over 1,500 pictures and videos over seven years while volunteering with the scout organisation in town.

He was suspended after he was arrested last October and expelled for life when he pleaded guilty before magistrates last month.

The 61-year-old was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court today (August 9).

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said Shaw was visibly shaken when police, acting on information, knocked on his door on October 26 last year.

He showed them his laptop computer, phone, memory cards and some discs.

Ms Atkinson said: “Indecent images were found on the hard drive which was removed from the laptop, an external hard drive and a disc.”

There were 138 indecent images placed in the mid-level Category B by the prosecution, and more than 1,500 in the lower Category C level.

Many depicted teenage boys, the court heard.

Shaw, who turned up at court with a bag for prison, admitted two counts of making indecent images of children dating back to mid 2014.

Alex Bousfield, mitigating, said: “He’s done a lot of good in his life and let himself down greatly at this stage looking at [these] images.”

He said Shaw had never acted on his attraction to youths adding: “Everything he’s done in relation to the Scouts has always been with the children’s best interests at heart.”

Mr Bousfield said Shaw, of Hayston Road, had already sought counselling himself to begin his rehabilitation.

Judge Howard Crowson said his behaviour will have caused “a lot of anxiety” due to his involvement with the Scouts.

But he said the risk he posed could be better addressed in the community than if he were to send him to prison for a short time.

Judge Crowson said: “That’s because the primary way to ensure you are rehabilitated and the risks are reduced is by enabling you to work with the probation service in an intense way.”

Shaw was given a two-year community order with probation and will be on the sex offenders register for five years.

Following his conviction, the Scout Association said it had been advised by the authorities that no Scout members were involved in Shaw’s offending.