What is happening with Sparklebox?

The following information has been pieced together from various sources of information across the internet. Sources have been provided where possible. Accuracy cannot be guaranteed, however the information obtained is taken directly from official and/or media sources. Brendenisteaching.com has no relation whatsoever to sparklebox.co.uk or its owners, and this page is hosted at this location purely for convenience.

In this document I will use the names "Sparklebox", "Samuel King/Kinge" and "Daniel Kinge" interchangably. It's all about the one person.

What happened? (quick overview)

The owner and operator of Sparklebox, Samuel Kinge (formerly Daniel Kinge), was accused of and found guilty of making and possessing indecent images of children, including the "abuse of babies". What we know so far is that he was discovered with over 400 of these images, but the media are still picking up the news so there may be more to come (There will be a televised feature on Monday 25 Jan). Samuel was sentenced on the 8th of January 2010 to one year in prison, of which he will serve 6 months, and restricted internet use for 15 years. He had previous similar offenses, more details below. After the previous offence, he faked his own death using a social networking site (posting "Daniel Kinge died on November 18") in order to change his name and reinvent himself.

Where is this information coming from?

The first website to have any official notice regarding this revelation is http://wisenet.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/dsweb/GetRendition/Document-9178/html

"It is understood that a person who is on the record as an owner and director of Sparklebox Teacher Resources Limited (which appears to claim ownership of the SparkleBox web site and children’s’ learning materials) is a registered sex offender who has recently admitted a second offence, is on remand in prison and is awaiting sentence in January."

The website's official WHOIS record provides this:

Domain name:
         sparklebox.co.uk
 
Registrant:
         Samuel King
 
Trading as: 
         SparkleBox Teacher Resources

This information is public and available by searching for the WHOIS records of 'sparklebox.co.uk' on the Nominet Website. What is more telling is that the information for sparklebox2.co.uk puts his name as Samuel KINGE (not King)

How else do you know it's him?

1) Look at the image on this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/4279523.stm

2) Look at this picture Sparklebox posted of himself: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=200849326&albumID=422428&imageID=1455129

How was he caught

According to radio news: Police looked through his computer and undeleted 400 photographs from his computer, which was set up to automatically delete them. Sam was found with a yahoo messenger account named "Samuel_boys" with an indecent picture of a 4 year old 'associated' with it.

I thought the whole problem was just about the website

The website was initially blocked because of security concerns regarding the toolbar. This was just a front, as the authorities could not release details of the actual reason without jeapordising any investigations. The toolbar is mostly safe but the recommendation is that you uninstall the toolbar just in case. There is no risk of the toolbar being used to send your personal information to Sparklebox because the toolbar was generated by Conduit, a company that only allows limited modification of its generated toolbars. Conduit does keep logs of internet searches you make using the toolbar, but it has not been detected to record anything else at this time.

How do I remove the Sparklebox toolbar?

This fellow has an in-depth analysis of the toolbar and how to remove it from some systems.

http://mikemcsharry.com/2010/01/07/how-to-completely-remove-sparklebox-toolbar/

Why haven't we heard from him?

Before the 8th of January 2010, Samuel Kinge was being held in prison on remand. This means he was locked away while they decided on his punishment. The implications of this are that the offense was serious enough to require he be kept in prison, and that the specific sentence requires an amount of time and a seperate court visit to decide.

Following the 8th, Samuel Kinge is in prison, sentenced to 12 months.

When and where was the sentencing?

Samuel Kinge was sentenced on the 8th of January, 2010 in The Shirehall Worcester courtroom "The Crown Court" by His Honour Judge John Cavell. Here is a link to the page detailing the time and location of the hearing: http://www.courtserve.net/courtlists/current/crown/worce_T100108.03.htm. He was sentenced to one year in prison and restricted use of the internet in the future. He will only serve half of this sentence.

Where can I find news of his sentencing?

Websites
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/4845271.Ex_schoolteacher_jailed_over_child_porn_pictures/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8462650.stm
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6033403
http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/news/Disgraced-Wellesbourne-teacher-Daniel-Kinge.5990829.jp
Related: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8477591.stm

Radio
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p005tmh7/Nathan_Turvey_08_01_2010/
Go forward to about 1:59:00 and listen for a few minutes for a short report on the sentencing. I have transcribed the first report:

"An Evesham man who created a popular educational website has been sentenced to a year in prison for making indecent images of children. 28 year old Samuel Kinge founded Sparklebox.com, a popular resource for teachers across the UK. Pam Caulfield has the details:

Kinge had been a primary school teacher in Warrickshire before he was jailed for 9 months back in 2005 for the same offences, over 400 indecent images of children were discovered on his computer in September 2009, which include the sexual abuse of babies. The court heard that even though images of young people could be uploaded onto sparklebox.com, there was no suggestion that Kinge had been distributing pornography through it. The judge said that even though Kinge had pleaded guilty and shown remorse, he was quite sophisticated in his use of eraser software in his attempt to hide the pictures. He has been ordered to sign the sex offenders register, and has had various restrictions put on his access to the internet.

But keep listening to it after this point, a few minutes afterwards they go into more detail at about 2:04:00.

Television

Tell me more about his previous offenses

During an online sting by the FBI called "Operation Jinks", Daniel Kinge's name came up in relation to another individual in the US. After Daniel was arrested on the 18th of November 2004, they found 115 indecent images of children in three laptops. Two of those laptops were kept at the primary school he worked at as a primary teacher. He also admitted nine charges of actually taking indecent photographs of children himself, and has been referred to as part of a "British group in an international paedophile ring". He was sentenced in January at Warwick Crown Court. He was sentenced to jail for nine months and banned from using the internet and from working with children, but the internet ban was lifted on the 18th of February, 2005, under the notion that the ban would prevent him from making a living. He only served half of this. Once he had finished his jail term, he posted a message to a social networking site announcing that he had died. This allowed him to reinvent himself as Samuel Kinge and start his teaching resource website.

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/4202975.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/4279523.stm
http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/news/Shamed-teacher-posts-bizarre-note.1629826.jp
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=15113183&method=full&siteid=50002&headline=jailed-teacher-kept-child-porn-at-work-name_page.html
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/coventry-evening-telegraph-england/mi_7969/is_2005_Jan_25/prison-teacher-child-porn/ai_n33971726/
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/coventry-evening-telegraph-england/mi_7969/is_2004_Dec_23/primary-teacher-child-porn-shame/ai_n33852678/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/10/paedo-sir-faked-his-own-death-115875-21955207/

What are teachers/schools doing?

Many teachers are only finding this out because their school or district has abruptly started blocking the website. Once it is discovered that the website poses no risks (or otherwise), it may become unblocked again, but that will never remove the sense of violation that many appear to be feeling about the site. Many of those who run similar teacher resource websites have begun to advertise themselves as "Sparklebox alternatives", while other teachers have decided that this is a wake-up call to start making their own resources.

What will happen to the website?

In his statement to police, Samuel Kinge stated that he no longer updates sparklebox.com (sic). In the BBC news report, it was stated that one of his relatives will be taking over the site, which indicates that he never actually had anyone working for him. The site will therefore continue to remain online as it is, continuing to provide Sam with an income indefinitely with its current set of resources and advertisements.

Where are other teachers talking about this?

http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/373463.aspx
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/364949.aspx
http://primaryresourcecentre.myfreeforum.org/about11059.html [thread deleted]

How can I download Sparklebox resources without accessing the site?

The following site currently claims to host, in accordance with Sparklebox copyright restrictions (that credit be given), all of Sparklebox's resources for alternate download.

http://primaryschoolteaching.co.uk/