Head teacher shared indecent images of children
St Robert of Newminster SchoolA former head teacher has pleaded guilty to downloading and distributing indecent images of children including teenage girls wearing school uniform.
Dean Juric, who led St Robert of Newminster School in Washington, Sunderland, at the time of his arrest in January, made images and videos showing girls as young as 12 in sexual poses, North Tyneside Magistrates' Court heard.
The court was told he was caught by an undercover police officer posing as a 58-year-old grandfather with a seven-year-old step-granddaughter.
The prosecution said his position as a headteacher had been an "aggravating factor".
Juric communicated with the undercover police officer - and others - on the messaging app Kik.
The court heard he sent the officer an image of a teenage girl wearing school uniform who looked about 15 years old, and other images of girls looking aged 12 and 13.
'Immediately suspended'
Juric also sent the undercover officer images of young teenage girls.
The court heard he had distributed Category C images but also had images up to Category A - the most severe form of child sex abuse imagery - on his device.
There was no suggestion any of the children in the images were pupils at his secondary school or bore a likeness to any child at the school.
Juric was arrested on 17 January and found to be in possession of 380 illegal images including 31 that were Category A.
Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust, which runs St Robert of Newminster School, said it "immediately suspended" Juric on learning that he was under police investigation and he no longer worked at the school or was employed by the trust.
The trust said it understood the charges did not relate to any school or individual in the whole trust and said its priority was to ensure all pupils and families felt "safe, supported and informed".
Juric admitted three counts of downloading indecent photographs of children and one count of distributing indecent photographs of children.
He will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on 22 December.
Correction 3 December 2025: This article originally described the offences as making (meaning to download) indecent images and was amended on 26 November to make clear the offences concerned downloading and sharing these images. References to "an undercover detective" were amended to make clear it was a police officer but not a detective. The article also wrongly said that Juric sent the undercover officer Category A videos of young teenage girls. This has been amended to clarify that Juric had sent the officer Category C images but also had Category A images on his device. We have also removed references to these being "artificial intelligence-generated (AI)" or "pseudo" after clarification from the CPS on the meaning of details on court documents.
