Ex-sergeant found to have accessed indecent images

The hearing panel referred to the misconduct involving indecent images of children as "particularly grave"

A former police sergeant found to have accessed indecent images of children has been barred from serving in any force.

A Thames Valley Police misconduct hearing found Gavin Kelly, previously based at Loddon Valley police station in Berkshire, also tried to procure sexual services from a sex worker.

He viewed and/or distributed 36 indecent images involving sexual activity with children and animals, the three-person panel said.

It described the misconduct involving children as "particularly grave".

The panel said Mr Kelly had accepted in an interview that the iPhone the images were found on belonged to him.

Authorities in New Zealand had reported to the National Crime Agency that the indecent material had been shared via a cloud-based platform.

The identification of the IP address led to Mr Kelly.

'Utterly appalling'

One of the allegations was that the file-sharing account was linked to an email address belonging to the former officer.

The panel noted that according to the evidence, the account subscriber was more than just a “passive” user "owing to the high number of files and folders present on the platform".

In the panel’s view, there had been "sufficient proximation" between the account creator and the sharer of the indecent material.

But it accepted that there was "no evidence to suggest that the officer had engaged in the wider distribution of the images of children found on his devices".

It was concluded that there was "an absence of evidence" supporting his claims the misconduct had occurred while he had taken "significant periods of leave owing to ill-health".

An apology was tendered on behalf of the officer, in particular regarding the distribution of the photo of a a female colleague's cleavage without her consent which he then sent to two other colleagues.

The panel recognised that he had shared confidential information from police systems custody with other officers via for policing purposes, but "by utilising illegitimate means".

The panel said that had Mr Kelly not resigned from his role on 12 August, he would have been dismissed, otherwise "public confidence would be entirely eroded".

It described his actions as "utterly appalling and incompatible with somebody holding the office of Police Constable".

His behaviour was found to have amounted to gross misconduct.