A three-year scheme by two retired Metropolitan Police officers and a current chief inspector of the Met to trade photographs of “the most depraved” child sex abuse resulted in their imprisonment.
Before being charged, the inspector was discovered to be deceased.
Jack Addis, 63, and Jeremy Laxton, 63, were jailed at Southwark Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to a charge of planning to distribute or display pornographic photos of children with Richard Watkinson, 49.
According to the testimony given in court, the guys shared the pictures and films on a hard drive that they added to whenever they got together “for their own sexual pleasure.”
Following concerns for his well-being, Watkinson, a working Met chief inspector for local policing at the West Area Command Unit, was discovered dead at his house in Saunderton, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, on January 12.
His suicide was reported to the court.
Following his arrest in July 2021, he was placed on administrative leave. On that day, he was scheduled to appear in court to answer bail on charges of the conspiracy, three counts of taking indecent pictures of children, voyeurism, and two counts of misconduct in public office.
The three men allegedly planned to “distribute or show indecent images of children to each other” between January 1 2018 and July 10 2021, according to the accusation.
The photographs were discovered on a computer hard drive and included 2,516 of the worst Category A images, 1,032 of Category B images, and 1,701 of Category C images.
Grantham, Lincolnshire native Laxton was punished after entering a guilty plea to a number of additional offences.
Laxton’s attorney, Karen Walton, stated that her client must live with the public’s perception of him as “integral” to the public’s “all-time low” level of confidence in the police.
Laxton received a five-year, nine-month sentence from Mr. Justice Wall, while Addis, of Perthshire, Scotland, received a three-year, nine-month sentence.
“The pictures you traded in were of the most depraved,” the court remarked.
Despite not working directly in child protection, he said, “You had each been policemen and must have been fully aware of the damage done to real children by the filming of such disturbing images.”
Laxton also admitted guilt to three counts of creating indecent photos of children, possessing a forbidden image, possessing an extreme pornographic image, and possessing cannabis on or before September 20, 2021, in addition to the conspiracy charge.
The indictment lists 56 extreme pornographic images that were “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an extreme character” and showed a person having sex with an animal. There are 6,086 images in Category A, 4,039 in Category B, 3,597 in Category C, seven prohibited images of a child, and 56 other images.
After witnessing a message Laxton sent to someone claiming to have “buried” his equipment within the walls of his house, investigators discovered gadgets in a ‘cavity’ Laxton had made behind the walls of his residence.
One of the officers assigned to review the material called one of the pictures “one of the most disturbing Category A pictures in existence.”
In addition, Laxton admitted guilt to the charge of willfully promoting or aiding the commission of the act of misconduct in a public position between December 1, 2019, and May 1, 2021.
At Lincoln Magistrates’ Court, Laxton admitted to several separate charges; he was also sentenced for those offences on Friday.
In Lincoln, he guilty to three counts of having severe pornography, indecent photos of children, illegal images, and cannabis possession.
