A disgraced teacher from Borehamwood who took photos of himself and another teacher abusing a 14-year-old boy has been jailed for 20 months.

John Foxley, 54, was head of geography at Lyndhurst School in the late 1990s, and along with Shaun Tyler, 37, preyed on the vulnerable teenager and filmed the abuse, leaving behind a damning trail of evidence.

Police caught up with Foxley after busting a paedophile ring which was dealing in copies of the sickening images he had taken.

Foxley, who now lives in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, was jailed for three years in 1999 for a catalogue of sex offences including assisting in the abuse of another 14-year-old boy and taking indecent images of children.

But detectives working on Operation Seaborg were able to identify a further five victims and now the full extent of his crimes can be reported for the first time.

At Middlesex Crown Court on Monday, Foxley admitted three counts of indecent assault, seven counts of taking indecent photographs of children and one count of distribution between June 1979 and April 1996.

Tyler, who first met Foxley while working at a school in Uckfield, East Sussex, was extradited To England from the US last year and jailed for nine months for his role in the abuse.

Journal of abuse

Wayne Cranston-Morris, prosecuting, told the court how Tyler had met the teenager in a hairdressers in Stevenage before taking him home to indecently assault him while Foxley took photographs.

The boy hid pictures given to him by Foxley in his loft where they were later discovered by his parents. An investigation by police uncovered a large number of indecent images at Foxley's home and a journal containing graphic accounts of abuse.

Judge Paul Worsley said this was an unusual case given Foxley's previous conviction, but added: "It must be of some comfort to these boys that, to some extent, justice has now been done."

Foxley was first snared in 1999 following an anti-paedophile investigation into two South Yorkshire health workers, Gary Taylor, 46, and Christopher Marsh, 50.

Police discovered nearly 6,000 indecent images saved on disk, some featuring Taylor, Marsh and Foxley. In interviews with the police, gay lovers Taylor and Marsh described how they had met Foxley on the internet and visited him in Borehamwood.

The teacher drove them to woods outside Luton to meet a boy with severe learning difficulties and used Lyndhurst school's digital camera to film the pair committing indecent acts with the boy.

Lesley Davies, a former governor at Lyndhurst School where Foxley worked, recalled the shock in the town when Foxley was first convicted in 1999.

She said: "Everybody was devasted and deeply offended. We felt as if we'd been betrayed by him, it was a betrayal of people's trust and friendship.

"Nobody I spoke to at the time had a clue, had any idea at all that he had another side to him, he seemed so inoffensive and so welcoming. He was a born teacher and was respected and admired by parents and children alike. It was an outrage."

DI Ian Hughes, who led the investigation into Foxley, said: "These two men have abused the position of trust they had as teachers and we've proved they have been responsible for the sexual abuse of at least five further boys."

Police believe there may be other victims who have yet to come forward and would urge anyone who may have been subjected to abuse by either of the men to call DI Hughes confidentially on 020 7230 5928.