A POLICE officer caught with a child porn stash after he was investigated for selling force equipment on eBayhas been spared jail. Former soldier Kevin Thompson, 32, of Lamorna Avenue, Gravesend, downloaded nearly 1,000 images of teenage girls, Southwark
Judge James Gledhill, QC, gave Thompson a 12-month community order and told him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work, after he admitted making indecent images of children.
He said: “You should be ashamed of yourself. You have served your country for the best part of your adult life, first of all in the army and then in the police force.
“You have fallen short of the high standard that the public can expect of a serving police officer.
He added: “‘It is quite clear to me that you have a perverted interest in looking at images of teenage girls posing naked or semi-naked.”
The judge said that he could not pass a custodial sentence because of the relatively low level of the images, but added: ‘If I could send you to prison I would.”
Thompson, a married man, had been under investigation over alleged sales of Met police vests on internet auction site eBay.
He must pay £800 costs and has been placed on the sexual offenders’ register for five years.
Thompson admitted seven counts of making indecent images of children.
He denied two counts of downloading more serious images and they were allowed to lie on the court file.
