Ex-don jailed over indecent child pictures

A don at the University of York has been jailed following the discovery of indecent images of children on his computer.

Dr Allan Hall was a well-respected senior research fellow until the police raided his house on June 19th, 2013.

Almost 7000 images of children were seized, including films of children as young as 18-months-old. It also turned out he’d been using Skype to distribute images of boys as young as six being sexually abused.

The court heard that he was a “lonely man”.

Judge Guy Kearl QC told him: “You are certainly clever enough to understand what you are doing.

“What you were doing was to promote and encourage child abuse.”

Hall was recognised as a pioneer in the field of botanical and environmental archaeology, and worked for over 30 years on the subject.

He took early retirement on August 30th 2013, despite the earliest dated images having been found on his computer being from 2006.

Dr Hall, 61, pleaded guilty to 21 charges of possessing indecent images and films of children, and 11 charges of distributing indecent images of children. He has been jailed for a year and added to the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

A spokesperson for the University of York said: “It is a matter of great regret that a former member of the University should have been convicted of these serious offences.”