October 2011 Child abuse images teacher walks free from court A TEACHER who was caught with almost 170 sick images of children at his home has escaped jail. Peter Allan, 28, walked free from court after being snared during an Interpol investigation.   The PE teacher, who worked at Eastwood High School in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, had downloaded 167 disgusting pictures and moving images last year.   He was identified during an investigation by officers based in Luxembourg who contacted police in Scotland.   A search was then carried out of the home he shared with his partner in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, where a laptop and a hard drive were seized.   At an earlier hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Allan admitted being in possession of indecent images and allowing them to be taken between March 13 and December 7 last year.   Sheriff Ray Small ordered him to be placed on probation for three years.   He also put him on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the same period and ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.   More than 80 indecent still images of children were recovered from the laptop that had been previously deleted.   A total of 22 movies of children were also found on the laptop, while a further 65 were uncovered on the external hard drive.   At a hearing Allan’s lawyer Lorraine Glancy QC told the court her client had resigned from his teaching post.   An East Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: “Since his arrest last December Peter Allan has been suspended from teaching duties and after pleading guilty has been subject to formal disciplinary action.   “His personal actions are a betrayal of his colleagues and do not reflect on the school in any way.”