July 2013 Disgraced former police officer and barrister jailed AGAIN for indecent child images A FORMER barrister and police officer has been jailed for a second time for downloading indecent images of children. John Temple, a father of four, previously had distinguished careers in the Navy, police and at the Bar but Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, branded him a “sick man”. “As your life history makes clear you are an intelligent man and have served your country with distinction but you have a dark side,” the judge told the 54-year-old, of Satley Plough, County Durham. “You have a perverted interest in pornography, particularly images of young children engaging in sexual activity with other children, adults and on occasions animals. “You are what may be described as a sick man but there is no name for the illness which causes you to download and store such filth.” Liverpool Crown Court heard that a computer Temple had owned for just a month contained more than 1,000 images of children – a third of them illegal. The judge said this indicated an unhealthy interest in children. Damien Nolan, prosecuting, said police who raided Temple’s home on April 19 this year also found indecent images of children in his pockets and on his bedside table. In mitigation, Ian Harris said Temple had lost everything and leaves behind the ruins of three professional careers. Temple pleaded guilty to 19 pornography offences, including some in the more serious categories, and was jailed for 16 months. A lifetime Sexual Offences Prevention Order was made, restricting his internet use and banning him from working with children. He is already on the Sex Offenders Register for life. In 2005, Temple was jailed for eight months for downloading more than 3,700 indecent images of children from the internet and distributing some of them. Temple had previously served with North Yorkshire and then with Northumbria police forces but retired after suffering serious head injuries when he was beaten up by suspected car thieves in North Tyneside in 1992. He retrained and became a barrister in Durham in 1998 but developed gambling and alcohol problems. His online activities initially came to light during an operation to bust a 1,300-strong paedophile ring. June 2013 Disgraced County Durham barrister facing second term behind bars A DISGRACED former barrister, jailed eight years ago for downloading thousands of images of child abuse, is facing prison for a second time. John Temple, an ex-barrister and police officer from County Durham, was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars back in 2005, but has now been caught with more obscene images of children. The 54-year-old yesterday (Thursday, June 20) pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to 19 child abuse/indecent offences and was warned by the judge that he is facing another prison sentence. They include 16 offences of making indecent images between June 2012 and April this year, possessing an unspecified quantity of indecent images of children; possessing 15 prohibited images of children and a further charge of possessing two extreme porn images. In 2005, Temple, from the village of Satley, near Lanchester, pleaded guilty to 34 counts of possession and distribution of child porn. It emerged that he had built up a collection of more than 3,700 child porn images, including photographs of girls as young as 10 months old. During today’s hearing, Damian Nolan, prosecuting, told the court that Temple’s latest offences involved fewer images than the previous case for which he was jailed. Judge David Aubrey, QC, remanded Temple, who was wearing a yellow T-shirt, in custody to return for sentencing on July 8, but he warned him: “You must realise that uppermost in the court’s mind will be an immediate custodial sentence”. The father-of-four had previously served as a “diligent and hard-working” police officer, first with North Yorkshire Police and then with Northumbria, but retired after suffering serious head injuries in 1992 when he was beaten up by suspected car thieves in North Tyneside. He retrained and became a barrister in 1998, working at the Durham Barristers’ Chambers near the city’s Crown Court. However, he suffered emotional difficulties, which included gambling and alcohol problems. His online activities initially came to light during an operation led by Devon and Cornwall Police to disrupt a 1300-strong paedophile ring. Officers raided his Satley home in 2004 and seized his computer, which was found to have been used to distribute more than 490 images to members of the network. Temple is already on the Sex Offenders Register for life. May 2005 Barrister jailed for child abuse images collection A BARRISTER from the North-East has been jailed for two years and eight months for downloading child porn featuring girls as young as ten months old. John Temple, who took up the law after his police career ended when he was beaten up by car thieves, admitted 34 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography. Judge Henry Globe, the Recorder of Liverpool, told the 46-year-old: “It is obvious that the victims have been unwilling participants and are bound to have been physically and emotionally traumatised by the events.” Police examined Temple’s computer and found 3,769 images, which featured girls aged ten months to 11 years old, on the hard drive, zip drive and also on 60 disks, Liverpool Crown Court was told. Some had been deleted but many had been viewed several times. About two-thirds of his collection was graded as the least serious level of paedophiliac images, but 382 were level four and five, the two most serious types. Temple’s activities were discovered after Devon and Cornwall Police, working on the national Operation Ore, discovered a computer that had been used as part of a paedophile network. One pseudonym on the network was “Rudisrevenge” and investigations revealed it to be Temple’s. Officers raided his home at Satley, near Lanchester, County Durham, and seized his computer in March last year. They also found that he had distributed 491 images to other members of a 1,300-strong paedophile ring. Prosecution barrister Damian Nolan said that Temple, a criminal barrister, told police he “knew it was a crime but did not give it any thought”. Temple, who is married and has four children, suffered serious head injuries when, as a policeman, he was badly beaten up by suspected car thieves on North Tyneside, in 1992, and was forced to retire from the Northumbria force. Temple, who had also served with the North Yorkshire force, became a barrister in 1998 and worked at the Durham Barristers’ Chambers, close to the city’s Crown Court. In one case, he represented a man convicted of possessing and taking indecent pictures of children who, at appeal, had his sentence cut from eight years to three. Defence barrister Robert Woodcock described Temple as a ruined man. He said he had been a “diligent and hard-working” police officer and a barrister who showed “enormous effort and obvious pride in his work”. He added: “Every career that this man has pursued is in tatters.” He received concurrent sentences of two years for possession of specified indecent images of children, two years and eight months for distributing indecent images and two years for possession of a further 3,753 indecent images. He has been suspended by the Bar Council and is likely to be disbarred. The judge said that Temple’s brain injury did not cause his use of child porn, but had been a factor in his emotional problems, which included gambling and alcohol. He said: “There is no direct causal link between the injuries and your offending. “That said, I note the surrounding difficulties that the incident has caused for you and your family in the years since it occurred.” Detective Sergeant Keith Gilfillan, of Durham Police’s vulnerability unit, said outside court: “With his experience as a police officer and a barrister, Temple may have thought that he knew enough not to be caught and could make himself above the law. “Today’s sentence shows that he is not above the law and neither is anyone else, regardless of social standing or profession.”