Porn trial teacher Matthew Underwood 'alerted head first'

A senior teacher accused of downloading child porn as part of a "gay awareness" project has claimed he sent a memo to his headmaster about it beforehand, a court heard.

Matthew Underwood, 38, denies 15 counts of making indecent images and three counts of possessing indecent images on his school laptop.

Police found a total of 170 indecent pictures on the laptop and a stash of Japanese child porn magazines and DVDs bought from the Amazon Japan website in a suitcase at his home, Cambridge Crown Court has heard.

Underwood, a history teacher at Impington Village College, claimed he sent a memo to headteacher Francis Difranco saying he would be teaching Japanese popular culture using "sexualised images".

He has been suspended since the allegations came to light last year.

He claims to have put a printed email letter in the principal's pigeon hole on September 12, 2007, saying his sixth-form history course would be "looking at Japanese idols - high profile models, often in their early teens, with a highly sexualised image".

The memo also proposed visits to the school by Holocaust survivors, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day, and was said to contain the comments "We are a risk-taking department" and "We want to shock our pupils", the jury was told.

But Mr Difranco yesterday (Tuesday, 16 December) denied ever reading the memo, claiming it would immediately have rung "serious alarm bells" with him.

He told the court he had only been at the school for 12 days at the time, but said he was meticulous about reading "every piece of paper" that was given to him.

Mr Difranco also denied all knowledge of a response he is alleged to have sent to the memo, which was produced as evidence in court. He said: "I dispute that I sent it."

Michael Magee, prosecuting, asked Mr Difranco what he would have done if he had seen the memo. Mr Difranco replied: "I would have contacted Mr Underwood immediately."

The court was told Underwood taught history primarily to 11-to-19- year-olds. He was made head of the department in 2004, and assistant head of the school in September 2007.

A selection of pictures from the DVDs, and seven of the magazines, said to contain level-one indecent images - the lowest level - were shown to the jury yesterday (Tuesday, 16 December).

The case continues.

Cambridge News