Police find 20,000 images on university professor Robert Grimshaw's PC
Families in Ramsbury have been shocked to find out that one of their respected neighbours, university professor Robert Grimshaw, had one of the country?s biggest collections of child pornography stored on his home computer.
He appeared at Salisbury Crown Court on Friday and admitted having what police in the West are saying was their biggest and worst haul of paedophilia seized from one person.
It has been revealed that Grimshaw tried to evade publicity following his arrest by changing his name by deed poll last October to Joseph Robert Mills with a new address in Stratton St Margaret in Swindon.
On Friday he appeared before the court as Joseph Mills (also known as Robert Grimshaw) and faced 16 sample charges On the surface Grimshaw, 59, was the very model of respectability commuting between his £500,000 house in Ramsbury to the University of the West of England in Bristol where he was head of the Faculty of the Built Environment.
The professor of engineering and his wife, who holds a top human resources job in Swindon, lived in an executive property in Newtown Road in Ramsbury.
Following a tip-off from police in Kent and Surrey investigating national and international child porn dealers, officers from Wiltshire went to Grimshaw?s home where they seized his computer.
On December 18 2007 he was arrested on suspicion of distributing and making child pornography images and within six weeks had quit his job as professor of engineering at UWE.
On his computer police found more than 20,000 sickening images with 75 per cent featuring children under 13 and the vast majority ranging from babies a few months old to seven year olds..
Cases of child pornography are given five categories by the police ranging from one being the least serious to five being the very worst sort.
Detectives classified more than 50 per cent of Grimshaw?s collection between levels three and five, featuring the worst kinds of abuse on the youngest of children.
While he was still lecturing at UWE Grimshaw used the email name ?trickydicky.uk03? when he accessed and distributed Internet child pornography.
Grimshaw strongly denied abusing children himself and claimed his fantasy bragging on pervert chatrooms was just bravado to help him obtain more images.
Appearing under his new name of Joseph Mills the professor appeared before Judge Keith Cutler at Salisbury Crown Court where he admitted five specimen charges of distributing indecent photographs of children, ten of making them and one of possessing indecent images.
The University of West of England declined to comment on the professor but did confirm that he left its employment on January 31 2008.
Grimshaw was released on bail to March 6 when he is due to be sentenced.
When he left the court at Salisbury on Friday Grimshaw wore a woolly hat pulled down over his ears, dark glasses and a scarf covering his chin in an attempt to avoid being recognised and photographed.
Soon after he left the court Grimshaw ran a gauntlet of jeers from other petty offenders who had attended the court.
A father-of-three who lives in Ramsbury said he had been shocked to hear of the allegations faced by Grimshaw and said: ?I don?t know the man although I know where he lives and I was pretty disgusted when I heard what he had been up to.
"From what I can gather he was very much a loner who never mixed with anyone."
Gazette and Herald