January 2004 School sex attacker jailed A school photographer has admitted sexually assaulting girls as young as eight as they posed for portraits. Simon Fuller, of Cauldwell Hill Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, was arrested following complaints from pupils at three different schools. On Thursday the 23-year-old was jailed for 14 months after he pleaded guilty to 20 offences of indecent assault on girls aged between eight and 11. The incidents took place over two days in October last year at schools in Kent, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Fuller, who is married, worked for a company covering the south east of England taking individual pictures of children and class shots. He started work for the company in June 2002 but was arrested after numerous children complained to their parents. Prosecutor Vivien Goddard told St Albans Crown Court that Fuller would sit the children on a tool box in front of a screen. Classmates were told to stay behind the screen while Fuller took the photographs. It was then he sexually assaulted the girls. Andel Singh, defending, asked for credit for Fuller’s early guilty plea and said the defendant felt “real remorse” and apologised to the victims and their families. Trust breached Judge Findlay Baker QC told Fuller: “You have breached the trust placed in you by your employers, the schools, the girls and their families.” He jailed him for 14 months with an extended licence of a further 28 months. This means Fuller could be recalled to jail if he does not attend a sex offender programme. Fuller was also banned from working with children and placed on the sex offender register for 10 years. Courage shown After the case Detective Chief Inspector Jerry Tattersall of Hertfordshire Police said the children had shown real courage by reporting Fuller. “He used his position to abuse children entrusted into his professional care in a most callous and calculated way,” he said. “It is due to the courage of the children at these schools who reported him so quickly that we were able to make such a swift arrest and prevent him committing further offences.” Fuller had been vetted by the company he worked for and had no previous criminal convictions.