Tyrone man jailed for upskirting photos sentenced for new crimes

A FORMER school bus driver currently in prison for upskirting schoolgirls has been sentenced for possessing more indecent images.

At Laganside Crown Court in Belfast today, Robert John James Arnold, 48, of Colhoun Terrace in Mountjoy, was sentenced for the offences.

He was charged with ten counts of possessing indecent images of children on April 20, 2022.

Arnold was sentenced last month for ‘methodically’ filming underneath schoolgirls skirts during his role as a school bus driver in the Tyrone area.

He was handed two years and four months imprisonment, half to be served in custody and half on licence.

However, the offences for which he was sentenced today relate to an incident where police were called to Curry’s Amusement Park in Portrush on April 20, 2022.

The court was told that police were called due to concerns that Arnold was taking photographs of young girls.

Images of children’s backsides were found on his phone, which police told him to delete. However, as he did so police seen further indecent images and seized his phone, which led to ‘hundreds more’ images being found.

Three of the images for which he was sentenced on Tuesday for possessing were category A – the most serious category, but it was noted that he did not create these images.

The judge said he had shown remorse, adding he did not have an insight into the impact of his behaviour but he did now.

She added, “The defendant failed to consider child victims of his offending and that they were being abused for his own sexual gratification.”

Arnold was handed a sentence of 12 months on counts one to three, 10 months on counts four to six and 10 months on counts seven to 10, to run concurrently.