Two retired police officers accused of sharing indecent images of children with a serving Met Police Chief Inspector have appeared in court.
Jack Addis, 63, and Jeremy Laxton, 62, put “a great number” of images and videos on a shared hard drive which was also accessed by Chief Inspector Richard Watkinson, it is said.
The senior officer, a serving Chief Inspector for neighbourhoods policing in the Met’s West Area Command Unit, was found dead on January 12, just as he was due to answer bail over a string of child sex and misconduct allegations.
At Westminster magistrates court on Thursday, Addis appeared via videolink from a Scottish prison and Laxton was in the dock as they faced the charges against them.
It is said they shared images on the hard drive with Watkinson between January 2018 and July 2021.
Neither defendant, who both left the Met more than a decade ago, entered pleas to the charges as District Judge Annabel Pilling sent the case to Southwark crown court.
According to the charges, Laxton is accused of having access to more than 13,000 indecent images of children, including more than 6000 in the most serious category.
Addis is accused of making indecent images of children himself, the court heard.
They are accused of a conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children, which prosecutor Edward Franklin said involved a hard drive and the men “sharing material with each other”.
It has previously been revealed that the CPS had authorised charges against Watkinson when he was found dead at an address in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire last month. He had been suspended from duty since July 2021.
Laxton, who lives in Grantham in Lincolnshire, was set free on bail, on the conditions he surrender his passport, live at home, give police access to his phones and electronic devices, and does not have unsupervised contact with a child.
Addis, from Perthshire, Scotland, was also given bail on these charges.
Both men, who left the Met more than a decade ago, face a charge of conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children.
Laxton is also charged with three counts of making indecent photos of a child, possession of prohibited images of a child, possession of extreme pornographic images and intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence (misconduct in public office).
