Child porn lecturer had 2,000 images

A former Leeds Uni head of department has confessed to downloading nearly 2,000 child porn photos.

Martin Towers, who lectured in Nursing, quit his job after police caught him with illegal photos of children aged as young as two.

The 58-year-old father of two escaped a jail sentence last week, when a judge told him he had “publically humiliated” his family.

Indecent..Towers said he found the photos “naughty”

Leeds Crown Court heard police arrested Towers – who attempted suicide in police custody – after tracking him through his phone.

Towers admitted looking at 1,986 images, of which 65 were level four, the second most serious kind.

He told police he considered looking at them “naughty” but deleted them afterwards.

The former Head of Midwifery quit his job earlier in the year, and was allegedly seeing a university counsellor.

Judge Guy Kearl QC said: “I think anybody who knows you would be astonished to see you standing in the dock.

“Before the discovery of these images you had a respectable job as a lecturer at Leeds University’s School of Healthcare. You have resigned and rightly so.

“Your wife has been publicly humiliated in her professional life. Not surprisingly the past 18 months have been stressful.”