A TEACHER had dozens of child porn pictures on his school laptop, a court has heard.

Joe Murray, aged 44, of Crofton Park Road, Honor Oak Park, was the associate deputy headteacher at Hither Green Primary School, Beacon Road, from January until June this year while the headteacher was on sick leave.

But the perverted images came to light when Murray handed back his school laptop at the end of his contract, Greenwich Magistrates’ Court heard today (October 8).

An IT worker tried to restore the factory settings on Murray’s machine but became suspicious after finding someone else had previously tried to do the same.

Further investigation found around 50 images on the machine, the court was told.

And when police searched his house on June 18 they found another laptop and several videos containing more indecent images.

On the personal laptop, 354 images were found, including 30 of children having sex with adults.

And the videos from his house contained a further 11 indecent scenes.

Murray had initially denied the charges but on June 22 he admitted to police that he had searched out websites looking for child pornography for his own sexual gratification.

These included images of children as young as eight having sex with men.

Murray pleaded guilty on September 17 to nine counts of possession of indecent images and video of children between January 10 and June 2.

In mitigation the court heard that Murray had not made the images available to other people, despite using a computer programme allowing users to swap photos between their computers.

After hearing the mitigation, magistrate Mr Parsons said he would be unable to sentence Murray.

Murray told the court: “I’ve reached the conclusion, which I can’t get away from, that I don’t have enough power to deal with the matter.”

He will remain in custody and be sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on a date to be set.