Serving officer who distributed child sex abuse images through online chatrooms is jailed

A serving police officer working with vulnerable children exchanged sex abuse images of children as young as seven in an online chatroom, a court heard.

Former Coventry copper PC Paul Hancock-French, aged 39, had even applied for a position as a sex offender manager when police raided his home in Nuneaton in July last year.

He has now been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to making and distributing 18 indecent images between July 2012 and July 2013 - eight of which were at the second most serious level.

Prosecutor Nicholas Burn told Leamington Crown Court that a police force in America had tipped UK police off that there was an offender in Cheshire - and when they searched the suspect's computer, they found e-mails linking back to Hancock-French.

Officers raided his home off Lutterworth Road and found the images on his computer, including eight at level four, three at level three, two at level two and five at level one, which is the least serious category.

The children were aged just seven or eight years old.

Mr Burn said four of the images, distributed in May last year, were distributed in a gay chat room used by Hancock-French.

He also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of possessing a canister of CS spray which was found during the police search.

He has now been dismissed, after 10 years with the force.

Michelle Heeley, defending said Hancock-French was suffering from a depressive illness, had shown genuine remorse and was taking steps to address his offending behaviour.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano refused a request to suspend his sentence.

She said: