Image copyright Andrew Price

A Wrexham teacher who downloaded indecent images of children has been jailed.

Mark Haslock, 47, from Llandudno, Conwy county, taught at Ysgol y Grango in Rhosllanerchrugog.

He was convicted of making and possessing indecent images of children, and taking an indecent image between June 2014 and August 2015 at an earlier hearing in Caernarfon.

He was jailed for eight months at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday.

The court heard Haslock was head of design and technology at Ysgol y Grango at the time of the offences.

He was arrested after police found more than 1,200 images on two computers seized at his home last August - of which more than 280 were of the most graphic category.

Judge Peter Heywood, speaking via a live link from Swansea Crown Court, said Haslock was a man of "good character" who gave up a career in engineering to become a teacher after studying at Bangor University.

But the judge said there was "a darker and different side to his character" which emerged during the trial.

Haslock claimed they were downloaded when he tried to get material for sex education courses and to help with his master's degree.

This was rejected by the jury but he was cleared of a charge of voyeurism.

Judge Heywood said: "You are still in denial about these matters and don't accept that you deliberately searched for such material.

"This is a significant fall from grace."

The court heard he had since lost his job and that he would no longer be able to teach.

Haslock was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for the next 10 years.

He was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order to stop him from working with children or vulnerable adults in the future.