A lecturer at Leeds uni has been arrested for possessing severe child pornography

His academic profile at the University of Leeds is currently ‘unavailable’


Nicolas Labeke, a member of the Leeds Institute of Medical Education, fellow and lecturer at the University, has been arrested for possessing child pornography after officers searched his house in Leeds and removed some of his computer equipment.

John Bull, prosecuting, said that a total of 76 images and films were discovered. Some of the images were at category A – the worst category level.

A University of Leeds spokesperson said: “We do not comment on individual cases, but we can confirm Mr Van Labeke is no longer employed by the University.”

The computers also had file sharing equipment and there was evidence that he had shared the illegal material with others.

Labeke has ties to universities in Nottingham, Glasgow and London as well as Leeds – corroborated by his Linkedin profile which lists him as a research fellow at all of these universities. He has been teaching at Leeds since January 2016. He had worked as a lecturer after obtaining his PhD in Computer Science at French University, Université Henri Poincaré.

Labeke pleaded guilty to one offence of making indecent images of children and one of distributing indecent images of children.
Ashleigh Metcalfe, mitigating, said that Labeke had also worked as a researched assistant. She said the computers seized from his home by police contained important doctorate work and other material required for his academic studies.

Miss Metcalfe said Labeke had been frank with police about his crimes. She added that Labeke had voluntarily referred himself to a treatment programme designed to address his offending after he was arrested.