A former police community support officer has been locked up after a court heard how he secretly filmed children as young as three in a swimming pool's changing rooms.
James Land, 43, pleaded guilty to counts of voyeurism and to possessing 365 indecent images of the most serious category between October 24, 2012 and May 20, 2021.
In April Land, of Abergele, admitted to having category A images. He also admitted to possessing more than 900 category B and C images and pleaded guilty to possession of 179 prohibited images of children, North Wales Live reports.
Derby Crown Court heard how Land, formally of Derbyshire Police, had been collecting child abuse videos and images for almost 20 years and was found hiding knickers belonging to girls as young as 13 underneath his bed.
Land had worked in a cyber crime unit at Derbyshire Police HQ before his crimes were revealed.
Land secretly filmed children aged as young as three naked in the changing rooms of a local swimming pool and had also secretly videoed an adult woman engaged in sexual activity.
Jailing him for a total of 27 months, Judge Nirmal Shant QC said: "An aggravating feature was that you were carrying out this activity for 19 years.
"And it is quite plain you specifically targeted very young children. You used your presence (in the changing rooms) to record young children and that has caused a great deal of distress for the families."
As well as the jail term, Judge Shant handed him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered him to be on the sex offender register, also for 10 years. At the time he was arrested, in May last years, one of Land's roles was to "engage with children who were suspected of committing low level computer misuse offences".
As part of that role, which he held from 2017 until his arrest last year, was "involved in safeguarding advice to adults and was involved in providing talks to schools on online safety" his sentencing hearing was told.
The 43-year-old father-of-one, who was suspended by the force following his arrest, has since quit his role at force HQ in Ripley.
Sarah Slater, prosecuting, said officers became aware that an internet address linked to Land had been accessing indecent image of children and so his then address in The Hill was raided. She said from it were taken a number of electronic devices, including his police laptop.
The prosecutor said: "When the police downloaded and reviewed a hard drive, they located a number of images and a video of young children in various states of undress within a swimming pool changing room. They were able to identify this as Queen's Park Leisure Centre, in Chesterfield and the video was dated from 2015.
"The police then obtained records from the swimming lessons being held at the pool to allow them to identify some of the children involved. They were able to identify five of the children involved but two remain unidentified.
"This video was made in the changing area and without the knowledge of those filmed. It is four minutes 17 seconds long and the defendant also then made two screenshot images from the video."
Miss Slater said police contacted the parents and guardians of those children they suspected might be in the video and they were all able to confirm they were. She said sexually-explicit images and videos were also found of an adult woman which were all taken and filmed without her consent.
The prosecutor said: "The indecent images show children as young as two or three, both females and male and some of them are visibly distressed in the photos. There was also an image of him exposing his (private parts) while on Derbyshire Constabulary premises."
Miss Slater read out two victim impacts statements made by parents of the children the defendant filmed. One said: "To know he was a police officer in out community has thoroughly damaged our faith and trust of those who are expected to look after us and our children."
Darron Whitehead, mitigating, said his client pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity at the crown court and has no previous convictions. He said: "On behalf of Mr Land I offer to this court and all of the victims in this case an unreserved apology for what he's done, the offence he has caused and the impact it has had on them.
"None of the recordings or the received images have been shared to others in a wider circle. His marriage had broken down and he is no longer in contact with his son.
"In this very room are his mother and father and two aunties all of whom he feels he has betrayed their values. He also feels he has betrayed the trust of the police force."
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