A SECONDARY school teacher and Dursley scout master obsessed with sadistic child abuse was jailed today for 10 months.

Many of the thousands of illegal images and videos in bachelor John Fleck's possession were of children receiving corporal punishment, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

The judge said Fleck, of The Slade, Dursley, had brought “disgrace” to the scouts and the teaching profession.

The material, collected over a 16 year period, was on Fleck's two computers and in a collection of so-called 'naturist' DVDs - one of which, called 'A Century of Discipline', was a compilation of eight hours of child punishment scenes, the prosecution said.

The court heard Fleck, 53, had worked as a teacher and served as a scoutmaster for the past 28 years, but there was no suggestion he had ever abused any of the children in his care in any way.

Jailing Fleck, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him it was a serious aggravating factor that he had held a trusted position in society with children in his care both at school and in the scouts.

"You were highly respected for a long time but you had a dark secret which the parents of those children you taught, or who they took to scouts, would have been absolutely appalled about," said the judge.

"Behaviour such as this undermines public confidence, both in schools and the Scouts.

"Every parent will now be asking this: 'Do we have a Mr Fleck in our school?'

"You have brought disgrace on the Scout movement and indeed the teaching profession."

Following Fleck's arrest he was sacked from Severn Vale School, in Quedgeley, and removed from his post of leader of the 1st Dursley Scouts.

He pleaded guilty today to six charges of making indecent photographs of children between January 1998 and January 2014 and two offences of possession of indecent photographs on January 29 this year.

Prosecutor Janine Wood said an investigation into the sale of 'naturist' films from Canada led to police raiding Fleck's home because he had been identified as a customer. Two computers and 29 adult films were seized during the raid.

Of the 29 adult films seized, 22 had illegal images on them, Ms Wood said. A computer tower in his loft was examined and had more than 4,000 illegal images and films on it, most of them in the least serious category C.

Another computer in his home contained more than 150 images.

Ms Wood said: "He said he would not hurt or harm young boys or touch them. He said he had never been attracted to a child in his care but did find children aged 10-14 attractive."

Judge Tabor said he had read a pre-sentence report on Fleck which rated him as a danger to children.

Stephen Thomas, defending, said he accepted that the report made 'grim reading, but said Fleck had been very candid with the police and had owned up to his offences at the first opportunity in court.

"He has never denied what he has done and he has never denied that what he did was wrong," he said.

"But when he went to school to teach children he went there to teach and nothing else. He never used or abused his position to take any indecent images of children.

“He has never used that position in order to get close to children for sexual gratification. He has never used his position to hurt, harm or abuse a child in his care."

He described Fleck as a very insular man with no close family.

At the time of Fleck's arrest Richard Johnson, headteacher at Severn Vale School, said he was "deeply shocked and disappointed."

He continued: "Mr Fleck was immediately suspended and his employment has since been terminated.”

A spokesman for the Scout Association said Mr Fleck was suspended from any form of contact with the movement as soon they were informed by police of the investigation.