A paedophile teacher who took photos of children and then made them indecent using AI software has been jailed for 19 months.

Liam Taylor, 26, previously admitted six counts of making and possessing indecent images of children and appeared at the Court of General Gaol Delivery for sentence on Thursday.

Taylor, who is now living in the UK, was a teacher at Ballakermeen High School at the time the offences took place.

He used Artificial Intelligence to manipulate images on his computer to make them indecent.

Taylor was originally arrested on an unrelated matter. His mobile phone and computer were seized by police where the indecent images were found.

He had filmed students in class and in the library without their knowledge. He then downloaded the videos – which were not indecent - onto his computer before taking stills which he then manipulated using software.

He had pleaded guilty to four counts of making or producing images and two counts of possession which involved 43 images in total - all in the least serious level one category on the Copine scale. All the offences were committed on May 27 last year.

Some images were manipulated to look relatively realistic while others were changed into anime-style images.

Two of the students were identified and spoken to. Both confirmed there had been no contact offences committed but neither wanted to make a victim impact statement, instead, wishing to ‘move on with their lives’.

Taylor, of Hindle Street, Darwen, Lancashire, had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty immediately.

Defence advocate Peter Taylor told the court: ‘My client was suffering from mental health issues at the time. That April, May, June time is a stressful time for teachers.

‘These offences appear to be a one-off. There was no evidence of anything else being scrubbed off his computer or anything relating to the dark web. There was also no evidence of distribution.’

The advocate said his client had now lost his career and asked for any sentence to be suspended so his client could have a longer period of rehabilitation.

But Deemster Graeme Cook said there was no grounds for suspending the sentence.

He told Taylor: ‘I accept you have lost your career but children should be able to go to school to be educated and not have done to them what you did.

‘I cannot imagine what these students and their parents thought when the police knocked on their door.

‘I take on board what your advocate has said in terms of rehabilitation but I cannot suspend your sentence.

‘You were a person in in a position of trust and you abused that trust greatly. If I was to suspend the sentence it would send out the wrong message.’

As well as the 19-month jail sentence, Taylor was also handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be excluded from the island for five years on his release.