Wakefield PCSO tried to hide interest in child abuse, court hears

Jonathan Plummer is on trial at Leeds Crown Court

A neighbourhood officer with "unhealthy interest" in rape and child abuse accessed police files in a bid to hide his own offending, a court has heard.

Jonathan Plummer, 35, had hundreds of files, some depicting the abuse of infants, stored on his phone, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Jurors were told he had looked up case files on similar offences to better understand "how people got caught".

He denies making and distributing indecent images of a child.

Prosecutor Louise Reevell told the court Mr Plummer, who was based in Wakefield, was arrested in August 2018.

'Snuff movie'

She said an analysis of his phone found more than 2,100 images and 200 videos of child abuse, including 339 images and 133 videos in the most serious category A.

Extreme pornography was also discovered on the device, including a "snuff movie" depicting a woman's death, although police doubted whether the killing was real, Ms Reevell said.

The prosecutor said Mr Plummer had used aliases and encrypted messaging apps to download and share images on a message board.

He had also had a chat with a 16-year-old Australian girl in which he discussed a rape fantasy and shared child pornography, she said.

Following his arrest, a police audit of his work computer found that he had been accessing intelligence files on cases involving indecent images of children and sexual offences.

Ms Reevell said he had "no legitimate reason to be looking at this information" and that there "was a correlation" between his searches and his own offending.

"What he was seeking to do was to discover a greater level of understanding how people got caught and to cover up his own offending," she said.

Mr Plummer worked in a neighbourhood policing team in for West Yorkshire Police as well as a being a Cyber Prevent Officer.

The court heard he told detectives during interview that he didn't know how the images had come to be on his phone.

He denies a further offence of possessing extreme pornography.

The trial continues.