Tyrone man jailed for taking videos of teenage girls on bus

A FORMER school bus driver from Tyrone was today jailed for two years after he was caught ‘methodically’ taking videos of teenage girls. 

Robert Arnold (48), of Colhoun Terrace in Mountjoy, was sentenced at Dungannon Crown Court. He was charged with possession of child pornography and outraging public decency on dates between October 2016 and April 2022.

The charges followed a police investigation for separate matters in 2022 which saw multiple devices seized from Arnold’s home.

Across three devices, there were 33 category A images of children, 21 category B and 310 category C images, alongside 33 images. Also found were 160 prohibited images of children.

However, contained in Arnold’s devices were 85 instances, totalling over 1,000 images, of upskirting related to a six-year period during his time as a school bus driver in the Tyrone area.

Subsequent enquiries found 29 victims from nearly a dozen primary and secondary schools in the county. Three out of the 26 victims were never identified.

The images were captured on Arnold’s phone, which he ‘methodically’ placed to capture the ‘genitals and buttocks’ of his victims.

His honour, judge Brian Sherrard, said that, ‘no right-thinking person could be anything but ouraged’ at Arnold’s ‘breach of trust’.

He added that the parents and schools were also the victims of Arnold’s offending.

The former bus driver denied having ‘sexual interest in children’, but showed ‘remorse and shame’ for his actions.

Noting his guilty plea, Judge Sherrard sentenced Arnold to two years and four months imprisonment, half to be served in custody and half on licence.

Arnold was further placed on the sex offender’s register for ten years, with a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) to serve alongside the register.