Tae Kwon Do instructor spared jail despite huge haul of child porn images

Instead David Crump, 55, was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service work.

His address was given in court as Fieldgate Close, Monks Gate, Horsham, but solicitors have confirmed to us that he is no longer residing there.

Croydon Crown Court was told that Crump had built up his collection over eight years.

He was finally caught after his fiancee exposed the truth about what he had been up to. The court was told that when that happened he tried to kill himself but the ligature he used to hang himself snapped.

At court on Tuesday he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of possessing and making indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography.

Crump is the co-founder of Kent-based Crown Tae Kwon Do, and also taught children in the back garden of his former home at Mount Pleasant, Biggin Hill, Westerham.

Prosecutor Miss Shahnaz Ahmed told the court that Crump’s fiancé, Natasha Foskett, discovered a suspicious link on his computer and told his adult children what she had found.

Miss Ahmed continued: “The defendant then went to the police and surrendered himself. His hand had been forced, and he told the officers: ‘I’m a sick man, I need help.’

“The police then seized a computer tower and laptop.”

Officer stopped categorising the images once they had reached 32,981 and 66 per cent of those were at Level One, at the lower end of the scale, but there were 3,707 at Level Four and 383 at Level Five - the most serious.

Crump’s lawyer Robin Ghosh said: “Following two suicide attempts he is on a heavy dose of anti-depressants.

“When the material was discovered he did not want it to go any further, but then he decided he was going to have to face the music.”

Crump handed himself into Bromley Police Station, confessed to officers and then moved out of the family home.

Mr Ghosh continued: “He did not receive any sexual gratification from these images, which he built-up over eight years after a breakdown when he was made redundant. It became an addiction and he still stands by that statement today.

“There were also never any suggestions of issues with the children he was teaching during the Tae Kwon Do lessons.”

Crump was to have been married in July but the wedding was cancelled. However, Mr Ghosh told the court there were hopes that Crump and his ex-partner would get together again.

“There are plans for them to re-engage as a family unit.”

As he sentenced Crump, Judge Jeremy Gold QC told him: “This was a depressing obsession with child pornography and extreme pornography.

“You are perpetrating the sexual abuse of children by your actions.

“Your relationship, if not finished, is on hold, you have lost your Tae Kwon Do business and are living an insular life.

“This is an absolutely enormous quantity of material, one of the highest amounts I have ever dealt with. Make sure you keep clear of this filthy material in the future.”

Crump must also sign the sex offenders register and a ten-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, which restricts his internet use and contact with children, was made.

He must also attend an internet sex offenders treatment programme and was disqualified from working with children.