Private school deputy head jailed after getting hooked on child porn through chemsex paedophile ring he met on gay dating app Grindr
THE deputy head of a private school has been jailed for possessing child pornography and Class A drugs after becoming involved in a drug-taking paedophile ring that met on Grindr.
Peter Allott, 37, became addicted to child sex images and hard drugs, spending up to £600-a-week, after being introduced to both at chemsex parties.
Cambridge University graduate Allott was a teacher at the £15,000-a-year St Benedict's School, Ealing, west London, where one priest is already on the run from a child abuse charge and another was convicted of nearly four decades of abuse.
He became involved in Chemsex parties and met new partners through the day dating app, Grindr.
He soon began to use Class A drugs like crystal meth and M-Kat, before exchanging and watching videos of child sex abuse.
Allott, who must sign the sex offenders register, received 32 months' jail time for the child abuse offences and an extra month for the drugs possession.
At Blackfriars Crown Court Judge Peter Hillen said the reputation of the "high-flier" had been destroyed.
He said: "You were leading in effect a double life that over the weekends you would engage in chemsex parties using crystal meth and m-Kat and having sex with multiple partners but also watch these images.
"Then on Monday morning you would put on your suit and you would be the brilliant, high-flying deputy headmaster doing your public duty and your work for society.
"A split personality, the devoted life on one side but the bespectacled deputy head master was a lie because the other side of your life was one of debauchery."
Allott, a former Tory councillor, sat stoney-faced throughout the hearing and spoke only to say "Thank you very much" after being led away.
Michael Shaw, for the prosecution, said: "In interview he stated he engaged seeking homosexual company through an online dating site called Grindr which involved him meeting other men who engaged in taking Class A drugs, normally crystal meth.
"In order to attract them he would raise the question of child abuse. If they expressed an interest he offered to show them images he had.
Mr Shaw said he shared images on online chat room Zoom and had image capture software to save pictures when others sent them to him.
Officers found 417 images and videos of children on the hard drive kept in his school office when they performed a search on December 7 last year.
They also raided his house and found a further 274 still and moving images on an Apple laptop and iPhone.
In mitigation, Daniel Taylor said Allott got into chemsex parties after landing the deputy head job and losing his mother to cancer and then his grandmother.
He said: "As his life spiralled out of control those parties, and the individual who attended them, became more debauched in their nature."
He added that he also became involved in "slamming", the act of having sex with multiple men at the same time.
A spokesman for the school said the community was "shocked" by the former deputy head's offending.
He said: "St Benedict's has been shocked and saddened by the offences committed by Mr Allott. He has already resigned and will not be returning to it.
"We would reiterate that there remains no evidence any pornographic material was found on school computers or that any other members of the school community have been involved in or exposed to the material Mr Allott was using.
He admitted three counts of making indecent photos of children on or before December 7, 2015.
He also admitted one count of possessing extreme pornography, one of sharing indecent photos of children and one of possessing a Class A substance.