Chef at top private school near Harrogate jailed for vile online sex offence

Mariusz Borowski, 45, a family man who worked in the kitchen at the internationally renowned Queen Ethelburga’s School near Harrogate, downloaded thousands of indecent images of minors and shared them online with other depraved individuals.

None of the images relate to any children at the fee-paying, co-ed independent school.

York Crown Court heard that Borowski’s insatiable lust for depraved shots of youngsters drew him to his computer in the dead of night for nearly a decade.

However, despite analysis of his devices showing he had been searching for illicit material since 2011, he wasn’t arrested until October 2020 when police, acting on intelligence, swooped on his home in York.

They seized two computers which were forensically examined and revealed that Borowski had downloaded over 3,120 photos and videos featuring children as young as four, said prosecutor Rachel Landin.

Borowski, of Chatsworth Terrace, was arrested and charged with three counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of distributing indecent images and one count of possessing extreme pornography, namely bestiality images.

He ultimately admitted all six offences but claimed he had distributed the images inadvertently or “without his knowledge”.

Ms Landing said that among the collection of debauched shots, 486 photos and 170 videos were rated Category A – the worst kind of such material involving the serious sexual abuse of children.

The prosecution ultimately accepted that the chef had distributed some of those images inadvertently on a “peer-to-peer” app because Borowski’s software had been in default mode, but she said it still counted as distribution in the strict legal and liability sense.

Borowski, a Polish national, had shared 11 Category A indecent videos, as well as an image of bestiality so disgusting in nature its details we have chosen not to disclose.

Ms Landin said Borowski was at work when police raided his home on October 16, 2020, when they seized two computers from his living room.

Officers went to Queen Ethelburga’s School on the Thorpe Underwood estate where he was arrested and “made no response”.

As well as the 3,128 indecent images, officers found 77 prohibited or cartoon images of children and 793 images of an extremely pornographic or bestial nature.

Those images were downloaded between June and October 2020, but Google searches by Borowski revealed he had been trawling the web for depraved material for over nine years, since June 2011.

Search terms used by Borowski betrayed his lust for sordid images of extremely-under-age girls, incest and nudism.

The videos were distributed via a named “peer-to-peer” software app or “chat programme”, apparently without Borowski’s knowledge.

One of the shared videos showed a child between four and six years’ old being raped by a man.

A photo distributed by Borowski showed the same barbaric act happening to a girl between nine and 11 years of age.

In another image, a child was sexually abused while asleep.

Borowski claimed he had a sexual dysfunction which led him to get his kicks on the internet, first with adult pornography and then with images of youngsters.

He appeared for sentence yesterday (November 30), aided by a Polish interpreter, after being booted out of his job at the top independent school.

Kevin Blount, mitigating, said forensic experts for both the prosecution and defence had concluded that the sharing of the images was accidental because Borowski had his app settings on default mode, which meant they could be distributed automatically without manual input.

He said that Borowski had worked full time at the school in a job that he enjoyed and was a good provider for his family, but because of his sexual dysfunction he had turned to the internet and began viewing “more and more extreme pornography”.

“This has had a devastating on the defendant (and) he was immediately dismissed from his employment (at the school),” added Mr Blount.

Borowski had been forced to leave the family home following his arrest but had found new work in the building industry.

Judge Simon Hickey said the “vast number of images of children being exposed to pain, humiliation and degradation” showed that Borowski had an “unhealthy interest in very young children”.

He said it was a “worrying feature (of this case) that (Borowski) was working as a chef within a children’s school”, although he had no day-to-day-contact with the pupils.

The judge said he wasn’t sentencing Borowski on the basis that he had deliberately shared the images, but his careless transmission” alone meant that many other like-minded individuals could have seen the depraved shots.

He told Borowski that jail was the only option because he judged him to be a “danger to the public given the length of time you were searching (for illegal images)”.

Borowswki was handed a 14-month jail sentence and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.

He was also slapped with a 10-year sexual-harm prevention order to curb his online activities.