A teacher who avoided jail after watching sick child sex abuse videos has been banned from re-entering the classroom.

Matthew Walker - a teacher at Stokesley School in Middlesbrough - had sick videos of girls as young as four on his computer in his ‘den’ when police raided his home.

The 29-year-old had installed software allowing him to search the internet for depraved videos without leaving a trace on his search history, a trial heard.

Last month a Teaching Regulation Authority panel ruled he should never be allowed back in a classroom.

Walker was convicted of three charges of making indecent images and videos of children at Teesside Crown Court in November of 2021 - 138 at the most serious Category A Level, six at Category B and five at Category C.

He was handed an 12 month jail term suspended for 18 months and will have to register as a sex offender until 2031.

He was initially arrested by police and dismissed by the school in February 2019.

Walker had only qualified as a teacher the year before and had a young son at the time of his court appearance.

He told the misconduct panel he bought computer parts from the “deepweb” and that hard drives he bought had the images on.

He set out to delete them, he claimed, and insisted he had no sexual interest in children.

Walker told the hearing: “I don’t actually have that type of interest in children, I’m not a danger to anyone, including children, but none of that matters because I [pleaded] guilty and on paper my thoughts, my situations and circumstances don’t matter anymore, and I’ve accepted that.

“Why I acted how I did after I received the hard drives I bought […] I’ve always maintained was me honestly trying to remove the files from my computer.

“I was given the option of either pleading innocent and going to jail […] it wasn’t an easy choice to make to plead guilty.”

The teaching misconduct panel said he ought to have known better having received safeguarding training and should have reported the images he discovered rather than trying to delete them.

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It said it, “did not consider that Mr Walker had demonstrated sufficient insight to demonstrate that he understood the impact his actions had in supporting an industry that exploits children.

“The lack of remorse and full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour, and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils.”

He was banned from teaching for life and will be unable to apply for the ban to be revoked.