A DECORATED police officer caught with thousands of images of underage girls on his computer has been fined just £640.
PC Adam Holbrook of Corporation Road, Chelmsford, was arrested on August 7 last year after surfing the site PrimeJailBait.com
The officer, who was commended for his work at an East London murder scene in 2007, was found to have 16 indecent images of underage girls posing naked or half naked on his computer and fined £40 for each at Westminster Magistrates' Court last week.
District Judge Nicholas Evans said: "It does not matter where the images came from and when they were downloaded.
"It is sufficient in this case for the court to conclude that the defence was browsing for such images of people under 13.
"I did not find his evidence credible or realistic that he was looking for 18 to 19-year-olds that looked younger.
"He deliberately put these images on his screen and I find him guilty of having downloaded all 16 images."
But the 29-year-old was also found in possession of around 3,000 other images depicting young girls.
Giving evidence, Detective Constable James Low, from the Metropolitan Police Paedophile Unit, told the court: "There were over 3,000 images that depicted children or teenagers in various states of undress.
"I was reviewing these images to see if any were indecent.
"I looked at 16 images which I believed depicted children in states of undress and in various erotic poses."
But of the other images, he added: "They depicted girls aged mainly 13 to 18 years old, predominantly schoolgirls in uniforms at school, or they were in bikinis at the beach.
"They weren't indecent but they were in a wide variety of settings and scenarios."
Holbrook denied seeing the pictures or intentionally downloading them but admitted he had visited the site.
"I do view porn online, perhaps once every other day," he told the court.
"I have never tried to view material of people under the age of 18.
"I have never been aware of indecent material on that site. I would have been shocked and certainly would not have visited that website again.
"I am attracted to girls over the age of 18 but certainly not younger."
Expert witness Nicholas Sharples, a computer expert who examined Holbrook's computer, claimed it was possible the police officer did not actually view the images.
He said: "Most of the 3,000 pictures on his computer were largely legal.
"They are stored on the website itself or from other sites but the pictures in question are all gallery sized pictures.
"I found 35 instances where the pictures had been displayed but they were all legal."
PC Holbrook was also ordered to pay £450 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge after the hearing.
He has been placed on the sex offenders' register for five years and remains suspended from duty pending a disciplinary hearing.
