A DERBY primary school teacher photographed himself raping a

little girl and had thousands of indecent pictures on his

computer.

Among Neil Challis' collection of images were indecent

photographs of two girls he took at schools where he

worked.

The 35-year-old, who has worked at 13 schools in Derbyshire,

was arrested in January after his eight-year-old rape victim,

who was not one of his pupils, told her parents.

He had raped and sexually assaulted her since she was five

years old, Derby Crown Court was told today.

After the girl finally told her parents about the abuse,

police arrested Challis, of Old Chester Road, Chester Green,

and found 3,940 indecent images of young girls on his

laptop.

The majority of the pictures had been downloaded from the

internet, but they included photographs of Challis abusing the

eight-year-old girl, and photographs taken up the skirts of two

pupils at schools where he worked.

Acting Detective Inspector Mark Knibbs, of Derbyshire

police's public protection unit, was the senior investigating

officer in the case.

He said: “Without her being so brave, there's every chance

he would still be teaching in a school in Derby probably

looking for his next victim.”

“I have never before dealt with a person this bad – in terms

of what he did and the way he went about doing it.

“He is a manipulative, predatory paedophile.”

Det Insp Knibbs said he believed Challis only became a

teacher because it would allow him to try to groom other

children, although there was no evidence he physically sexually

assaulted any of his pupils.

Challis pleaded guilty to 14 charges of rape, sexual

assault, taking indecent pictures and possessing indecent

pictures.

He is due to be sentenced next week.

Education authorities today said they had informed parents

about the case.. They said Challis had been the subject of a

criminal records check before being employed, but because he

had committed no previous offences, it did not show up anything

suspicious.

Police have contacted the parents of the two girls who were

photographed at their school. But the girls have not been

told.

Det Insp Knibbs said the police were “99.9 % sure” that

there were no other victims.

He said Challis' rape victim had been extremely brave and

had been videoed for hours while she relayed her evidence.

He said: “It was a long process – after years, there's lots

to tell. And because she's a child and has a short attention

span we didn't want to video her for long periods at a

time.”