Officer praised for saving Huntingdon victim's life is condemned for making child sex images

A celebrated police officer who saved a man's life would have been dismissed from the force for an indecent images conviction had he not already resigned, a tribunal has ruled.

Former PC Aidan McKay, who was based at Huntingdon police station in Cambridgeshire, was given a suspended sentence in December after admitting making indecent images of children.

But just a year earlier, he had been praised by a judge for helping to resuscitate a man who collapsed at his home in Huntingdon after his bank cards were stolen by a fraudster.

Cambridgeshire Police said McKay had been found to have committed gross misconduct and would have been dismissed from the force for his sex offences if he had not resigned last August.

A special case hearing held by the force on Friday concluded that he had breached professional standards.

Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “We expect our officers and staff to uphold the highest standards of behaviour at all times; on this occasion PC McKay failed to do that.

"He showed complete disregard to the privileged position that was bestowed upon him as a police officer."

McKay pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornography and was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, on 19 December at Luton Crown Court.

He was also given a sexual harm prevention order and put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

McKay was praised by a judge in January last year for his actions in helping a man who was targeted by a fraudster who followed him home from the bank in Huntingdon in 2019.

The victim had just rung police to say his bank cards had been stolen when he collapsed and stopped breathing.

PC McKay arrived in time to help save his life with the help of firefighters who turned up with a defibrillator.

Following Friday's hearing, Mr Dean said the images made by McKay showed the "worst possible forms of child abuse".

He said: "The result of this hearing should demonstrate my commitment to remove people from the constabulary who fail to demonstrate the standards that everyone expects from policing.”

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