Greater Manchester PC who made indecent image barred from policing

The hearing at GMP's headquarters was told Ashcroft would have been dismissed if he was still serving as an officer

A former PC who resigned from a force after he admitted making an indecent image of a child has been barred from policing.

Lee Ashcroft, 40, was given a 10-month suspended sentence in December after a search of his laptop revealed a video categorised at the most serious level.

A Greater Manchester Police (GMP) misconduct hearing ruled he had committed gross misconduct.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson said his actions were "morally reprehensible".

"Ashcroft's conduct and conviction inevitably brings the organisation into disrepute and undoubtedly damages the confidence the public might otherwise wish to place in their police officers," he said.

"That Ashcroft appears to have derived some perverse sexual pleasure from the exploitation and suffering inflicted on a child is despicable.

"His conduct cannot be further removed of that required of a police officer."

He added that Ashcroft's culpability was regarded as "high" due to his "deliberate actions", which were carried out "in the full knowledge that his conduct was blatantly unlawful and morally reprehensible".

"He now stands rightly convicted as a sex offender.

"He has completely forfeited the trust of the public whom he was sworn to serve."

The hearing at GMP's headquarters was also told Ashcroft, who resigned from his role as a PC in the force's Special Operations unit on 21 October 2022, would have been dismissed if he was still serving.