January 2012 Music tutor found with child porn escapes prison sentence A PRIMARY school teacher has escaped a prison sentence after admitting downloading child porn on his home computer. Alfonso Stephen Ciavucco had been working as a music tutor at Park Hall Primary when police discovered traces of the images. It brought his 30-year career to an abrupt end and he resigned from the post in the wake of his arrest. The 56-year-old was also forced to quit as musical director of Stone Male Voice Choir. Ciavucco pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs of children at an earlier hearing. He was sentenced yesterday at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court to a three-year community order. It includes a requirement to attend a sex offender treatment programme and complete 225 hours of unpaid work. He will be automatically banned from working with children and will be placed on the sex offenders’register for five years. Ciavucco, who is disabled and relies on his computer to do internet banking and shopping, will be allowed to continue using the internet. But he will have to submit his computer for inspection by a police officer on request. Heather Chamberlin, prosecuting, said police executed a search warrant at his home in Delaney Drive, Weston Coyney, after being contacted by colleagues in the Gloucestershire force. They seized several pieces of computer equipment and sent them off for analysis. Altogether, 78 of the images were classed as level one, the least serious level. But there were also three at level three and five at level four. The children depicted in the photographs were as young as eight years old. Ciavucco admitted regularly accessing indecent images, although he did not make copies of them. Miss Chamberlin told the court: “He said he looked at images of child models wearing bikinis.” Ciavucco had not used any of the computers at Park Hall Primary School to access the child porn. Cathlyn Orchard, representing the defendant, said that although some of the images crossed the custody threshold he had been very candid with police. “It never escalated to a point where he has ever been interested in doing anything in terms of actual offences against children,” she added. Describing him as a “well-respected and highly-regarded” member of staff at school, she said he has lost “an awful lot” as a result of his behaviour. She added: “He has lost his job that he loved, a job that he had for 30 years. He won’t get anything like that again. “His choral work was also of considerable importance to him.” As musical director of the choir, he did not work with anyone under the age of 18, the court heard. Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said child porn relied on the exploitation of youngsters and Ciavucco had “perpetuated that very exploitation” by accessing the indecent images. He told him: “There is no doubt that the motivation was your own sexual gratification. “To that extent, you seem to be in a degree of denial.”