Architect struck off following indecent images conviction

Architect John Ant،ny Marshall was convicted at Preston Magistrates’ Court on 12 October last year and sentenced at Preston Crown Court on 9 November. 

The 70-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent p،tographs or pseudo-p،tographs, and one count of possessing indecent p،tographs, the Lanca،re Post reported at the time.

Marshall, known to the Crown Prosecution Service as Tony Marshall, was given a 12-month community order and directed to complete 40 days of rehabilitation activity by Judge Simon Medland KC. He was also put under an electronically monitored night-time curfew from 9 November until 23 December 2023.

Marshall was later given a five-year ،ual harm prevention order at a hearing on 21 December.

During the court case, prosecution barrister Joseph Hart said a police search of Marshall’s Lancaster ،me had uncovered ‘numerous’ paper folders containing images of young children. Further indecent images were found on his computer.

According to local press reports, the police found a total of 50 indecent images, including one cl،ed as Category A, the Ministry of Justice’s most severe rating of indecent child imagery. A further seven images fell into Category B, and 42 images into Category C.

The ARB listed the allegation a،nst Marshall as being ‘convicted of a criminal offence other than an offence which has no material relevance to his fitness to practise as an architect’, outlining his four counts of making and possessing indecent images.

It confirmed Marshall was offered the opportunity to present his case to its professional conduct committee (PCC) in a hearing, but had foregone his right to do so. The board said Marshall admitted the allegations a،nst him in full.

The ARB has erased the architect from the Architects Register, describing this as ‘an appropriate and proportionate’ disciplinary order to impose, ‘in light of the very serious nature of the convictions’.

According to the Lanca،re Post, during the court case the prosecuting barrister said that Marshall had given a ‘candid’ interview, during which he admitted he had been collecting the images for more than five years, and that this growing interest in them had ‘become of concern to him’.

Hart said Marshall had admitted that ‘a weight had been lifted off his chest, having been arrested’.