Staffordshire Police worker who downloaded crime photos jailed

Darren Collins had worked for Staffordshire Police for 18 years

A police digital forensic specialist who illegally stored images of murder victims and crime scenes to his own electronic devices has been jailed.

Birmingham Crown Court heard IT worker Darren Collins, 56, "thought he might just get a telling off" for storing and viewing images without authorisation.

He admitted misconduct in a public office last month after being sacked by Staffordshire Police for gross misconduct.

He was jailed for three years.

Prosecutor Simon Davis said Collins, of Pinewood Drive, Little Haywood, near Stafford, had admitted a charge relating to illegal access to and storage of images of deceased persons between January 2014 and December 2018.

The court heard he used a "back door" method to access images of murder scenes, pictures taken at post-mortem examinations and of road traffic collisions.

After his arrest, Collins, who worked for Staffordshire Police for 18 years, claimed to have viewed them because he wanted to become a scenes-of-crime officer.

'Suffered dreadfully'

Defence barrister Kelly Cyples said Collins suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of work on investigations into child abuse and had not realised what he was doing was criminal.

"There was no malicious intent and the images have never been shown to anyone else," she said.

Judge Roderick Henderson said relatives of victims pictured had been informed they had been looked at by Collins.

"These people of course suffered dreadfully with the loss of their loved ones," the judge said.

"To discover now that you were looking [at the images] for nothing but gratuitous curiosity is a further grievous insult to them, their memory and their families."

Staffordshire Police previously said it was reviewing security and access systems and processes to ensure they were as "robust" as possible.

Deputy Chief Constable Emma Barnett said: "I'm very sorry for the additional distress that Collins' actions caused to the families of the victims involved.

"We expect the highest levels of honesty and integrity from all of our officers and staff and anyone who falls below these standards will be held to account."