November 2026

Pervert copper avoids prison

Matthew O’Callaghan, 40, served with Kent Police in the Sevenoaks and Swanley area.

He was dismissed from the force after an investigation uncovered images on his devices, including material in Category A, the most serious classification.

Despite the scale of his offending, O’Callaghan was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. That means he was not sent straight to prison.

O’Callaghan, of Maidstone Road, Sevenoaks, joined Kent Police as a volunteer in 2018. He became a police community support officer in 2019 and a police constable in 2023.

The court heard he had also applied to work in the force’s online child protection unit which focuses on abuse involving the internet. Its work can include investigating people who make, download or share child sexual abuse images, identifying children in those images, and investigating online grooming.

Police went to his home on 29 January 2024 after receiving information that indecent images had been downloaded using an IP address linked to the property.

O’Callaghan was arrested, and officers seized two Samsung phones and an iPad.

A forensic examination uncovered 324 indecent images across Categories A, B and C, as well as 57 videos labelled “taboo”. One phone contained 116 Category A images. The court heard that some of the images showed the abuse of very young children, including a child aged three.

O’Callaghan initially pleaded not guilty and claimed his phone had been hacked. Further investigation found the device had not been compromised, and he later pleaded guilty to the charges.

Sentencing him, Judge Daniel Stevenson said O’Callaghan had thrown away his career and that his offending had undermined public trust in the police.

The judge also referred to the consequences for his personal life, saying: “That impact on you is bigger than any punishment I can impose.”