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Child porn governor ran trips for disabled youngsters
A PAEDOPHILE caught making hundreds of child porn pictures had been employed by the council to take some of Doncaster's most vulnerable children on days out.
Thorne child care specialist Michael Tombs, who last week admitted making nearly 400 indecent images of children, took dozens of severely disabled children on Doncaster Council-run summer holiday excursions.
The council ran "stringent checks" on Tombs before employing him, including a full Criminal Records Bureau check, but his sordid secret life went undetected.
After the Free Press exclusively revealed Tombs' crimes last week, horrified parents told how the offender had been giving "personal" and "hands-on" care to children on respite excursions.
The parents of three different children with severe disabilities, all of whom requested not to be named, said Tombs had been on visits ranging from local bowling trips to seaside and theme park outings.
Tombs, 33, of Lockwood Close, Thorne, pleaded guilty at Doncaster Crown Court last week to five counts of making indecent pictures of children including one rated as level five - the most shocking kind - and 55
classified as level four.
The court heard Tombs made the pictures between May 1, 2006 and April 1 last year - at the same time as he was employed by Doncaster Council's Children's Disability Service as a sessional worker.
A council spokesman confirmed Tombs was appointed by the authority in May 2003. He quit the role in March last year on ill-health grounds.
He helped run playgroups, holiday schemes and activity sessions, some
of which gave him unsupervised contact with youngsters, the council said.
All three parents said they had personally met Tombs when they dropped off and collected their children from the after-school and holiday sessions which, they said, operated out of Doncaster Mencap on Thorne Road and also from a base at Richmond Hill School in Sprotbrough.
One worried father, whose disabled daughter had been entrusted to Tombs' care in 2004, described him as "a bit of an oddie."
He said: "Both the wife and I always felt there was something different about him."
"What has happened though, beggars belief. His job entailed doing everything from play work to personal care and changing nappies." he added.
The stunned mother of a 15-year-old boy placed in Tombs' care was outraged at the news. "It's a horrible shock to parents.
"The schemes were a kind of respite to give mums a break while knowing where their children were and that they were safe. I need some answers."
The distraught mother of another severely disabled boy, who has since died, said her son had been in the care of Tombs on a bowling trip organised by the council team.
"There are so many questions that need to be answered. These kids can't talk about what's happened," she said.
But South Yorkshire Police, who issued a warrant for Tombs' arrest after gathering intelligence from the Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency (CEOP), said in a statement: "No children were
directly in danger."
The statement read: "Schools and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, who he worked for at the time, have been contacted.
"It has been established that no children in his care were 'hands on' victims."
A spokesman for the council's Children's Services department said: "We made stringent checks on Michael Tombs and there was no way we could have known about this hidden side of his character.
"Mr Tombs was a well known child care specialist who worked with a variety of local authorities and other organisations nationally. Prior to Mr Tombs starting work with Doncaster Council we carried out a full Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check and received two positive
references - one from the managing director of his employer at the time and one from the head teacher of a nursery school.
"Parents and carers can be reassured that we do have rigorous procedures for referencing and CRB checking staff who work closely with children."
Last year, Tombs, the boss of childcare company Michael Tombs Childcare Services, was charging prospective play workers 40 for courses including Child Protection just weeks after committing his last offence.
Doncaster Council appointed Tombs as a school governor at Thorne's King Edward Primary school but he quit after ten months without ever having attended a meeting.
He is expected to be sentenced at Doncaster Crown Court later this month.
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