A secondary school teacher has been banned from the classroom after sharing child sex videos on a messaging and chat platform.

Christoper Ridgewell, 28, was teaching at The Sandon School, in Molrams Lane, Chelmsford, when he became the subject of an investigation by Essex Police in 2020. 

Officers linked the upload of illegal videos featuring young girls aged between 12 and 15 years old via the messaging app Kik to Ridgewell’s address. 

After being caught he admitted to a series of sexual offences and was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court to 21 months of imprisonment, suspended for 24 months and a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years. 

He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for a period of 10 years and sentenced to rehabilitation activity of 30 days. 

Echo: Banned - A former teacher from a Chelmsford secondary school has been banned from the classroom

According to Ridgewell, he had started watching illegal pornography involving 14-year-old girls when he was 14 and had done so “on and off” over a period of three years, before he reoffended in March 2020. 

Ridgewell started teaching in Chelmsford on September 1, 2020, and was suspended on November 13, before his resignation ten days later. 

He has since been banned from the profession of teaching indefinitely following a Teaching Regulation Agency panel meeting. 

The panel’s report states the indecent videos were uploaded prior to his employment on July 22. 

The report stated Ridgewell said he thinks “with disgust” about the offences and feels “terrible and disgusted” by his actions.