A serving Metropolitan Police officer who paid to access a portal containing sexual abuse material involving children as young as one being raped or sexually tortured was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for one year.
Darren Hourigan, 51, of Tooting initially denied knowledge of the material and suggested he might have been hacked.
Hourigan served in the Met’s South Area Command Unit, covering Bromley, Croydon and Sutton. Investigators linked two email addresses attributed to him to a portal containing 3,490 videos and 295 still images. Its folders included material labelled “baby” and “1 to 5”.
He eventually pleaded guilty to three counts relating to indecent images of children. At Kingston upon Thames Crown Court, Judge Barklem imposed the suspended sentence, meaning the officer avoided immediate custody despite admitting the offences. Hourigan was suspended from duty and later resigned from the force.
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