The former chief executive of an academy trust posted shocking pictures and videos of children as young as one online.

James Cooper, 52, formerly Mark Jones until earlier this year, uploaded the horrific images to messaging app Kik in March 2021 when he was CEO of the Prosper Learning Trust in Newcastle.

Among them were pictures involving young girls aged between six and 16, and video of a baby girl aged about one-year-old being sexually abused, a teaching misconduct hearing was told.

It heard Cooper, who has changed his name since the allegations arose, was first caught uploading images graded Category A, B and C in March 2021 from an account linked to him through an email address and computer IP address.

Kik shut down the account and flagged the activity with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US, who raised the alarm with Northumbria Police.

But Cooper, then uploaded more photos that June from a second account set up with the same email address and coming from the same IP address, linking to Cooper’s home.

The hearing was told the second upload included 22 images graded Category A, B and C and included videos of a boy being tied to a bed and being sexually abused, and a girl aged about one-year-old being sexually abused by a man.

He was arrested in October 2021 and police searched his home and work based at Thomas Bewick School in Newcastle’s West End, seizing his devices.

He was suspended from his post later that month and was handed a two-year Sexual Risk Order at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court in June 2022.

A report from the misconduct hearing says no children under the Prosper Trust, which has academies across Tyne and Wear, were involved and no school tech had been used to access the pictures.

Police found no images on his devices but found deleted files with names which suggested they contained indecent images.

In evidence he told the panel he did click a link he suspected contained indecent images, but said he was “shocked” by the name of one file so copied it into his notes planning to report it, but he never did.

A witness explained Cooper said he had started looking for “bad people” to find why they offend” and that “it wasn’t what it seems”.

While Cooper admitted having a Kik account, that the account was his, and that he had engaged with people sharing images he suspected contained indecent pictures of children, he denied ever seeing any or uploading the images to the internet.

Cooper said no one else had access to his Kik account and that he did not believe anyone else at his home address was responsible.

He said he used the app to find “bad people” and received links likely to contain indecent images, but that he needed to do this to get the “bad people” to engage in conversation. He added that he would remove letters from the links to “damage” them before sharing them.

He denied ever having seen or uploading images of children to the internet.

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All allegations against him were found proven and the misconduct panel said he was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.

It said his actions were “calculated and motivated” as they banned him from working in any school, sixth form, college, youth accommodation or childrens’ home in England.

He will have 28 days to appeal the order which is life-long.