Nelson Bland

Nelson Bland, a 50-year-old former IT teacher and Labour councillor from Reading, Berkshire, appeared at Reading Magistrates' Court on 24 March 2004, where he was spared imprisonment for possessing and distributing child pornography. Bland, who had earlier pleaded guilty to 16 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of distributing child pornography, received a sentence of 100 hours of community service. The court heard that police discovered 91 indecent images on a computer seized during an investigation into an unrelated murder case.

The images came to light as part of Leicestershire Police's inquiry into the murder of Philip Croydon, who was stabbed to death by his wife, Carol Croydon, in a Leicestershire hotel room. Carol Croydon, Bland's lover at the time, was sentenced to life imprisonment the previous month for the killing. During the search of a computer linked to the case, officers uncovered the child abuse material, which included 15 images classified at the second highest level of seriousness. One particularly disturbing image depicted a child in shackles, as shown to the magistrates.

Magistrate Rod Bailey remarked that Bland's early guilty plea was the only factor preventing a custodial sentence. In addition to the community service, Bland was ordered to attend a sex offenders' retraining programme and remain on the sex offenders' register for five years. At the time the offences were uncovered, Bland was employed as an IT teacher at Denefield School in Tilehurst, Reading, and served as a Labour councillor for the Bulmurshe ward of Wokingham District Council in Berkshire. He now resides in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

The case highlights how investigations into other serious crimes can uncover hidden sexual offences. According to BBC News reports from 24 March 2004, the discovery was incidental to the murder probe, yet it led to Bland's conviction for serious child sex offences. No specific dates for when Bland viewed or distributed the images were provided in court proceedings, but the material was found on a computer seized in connection with the February 2004 murder sentencing of Carol Croydon.