February 2013 Child abuse images lead to three-year jail sentence A surveyor who was caught with more than 11,000 images of children, some being raped and abused, has been jailed for three years. Paul Archer, 34, used sophisticated computer software to hide the hoard of indecent images from his family and others. But police who searched his home after a tip-off discovered sub-folders of obscene material. They had been downloaded under his username, “Dad”, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard. Married father-of-two Archer admitted taking or making indecent images at his home in Irvine, Ayrshire, between May 2010 and May 2012. Several times a week, Archer would spend hours viewing the child abuse images, whose victims ranged from babies to 15-year-olds. More than 2000 of the photos and movie clips were at the two worst levels of depravity, the court heard. Folders of the indecent images were given titles such as “4yo” and “Babytodd”. The graduate land surveyor told police: “What started out as a wee bit of innocent research turned into a habit, really. “I knew I had to get help.” Archer, who has a prior child sex conviction, was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for three years. Before he was caught, Archer had unsupervised access to many children who went to school at Broomlands primary school. On one occasion, Archer was left to take photographs of some youngsters for a school calendar. Archer had been trusted to chaperoned children on school trips, and he even helped run the schools football team. He was also the head of the PTA for which he co-ordinated fund-raising and social events for the school.