Child porn head quits

THE HEADMASTER of a girls' public school has resigned after child pornography magazines were found in his study, it emerged yesterday.

Customs investigators questioned Alan Beatson after a copy of the Dutch magazine Helios was intercepted on its way to him in the post.

They found a dozen more copies of the magazine, which contains explicit pictures of children, in his study at Selwyn School in Matson, Gloucester.

The magazines were seized and a report sent to the Customs and Excise Commissioners, who will decide whether to prosecute him for importing obscene material. He has not been arrested or charged.

Earlier this month Mr Beatson left his pounds 40,000-a-year post at the 380-pupil school, which takes girls from nursery age up to 19. The school governors say the headmaster, who held the job for three years, resigned on doctor's advice because of ill health.

Governors' chairman John Gannon said: 'He has been working particularly hard recently and has become quite ill.'