A serving police officer has been jailed after he was found to be in possession of over 500 images of child sexual abuse.
Devices seized from Mark Rosebury’s home in Bacup, Lancashire showed hundreds of indecent images of children. The 38-year-old was a member of Greater Manchester Police at the time of his arrest.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possessing extreme images, and one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child. He was subsequently jailed for 18 months.
Rosebury was accused of using three IP addresses to access and download the images – one linked to his home address and another two connected to the East Lancashire Railway, where he was a volunteer.
Judge Altham, sentencing, said: ‘These images were accessed by you over a lengthy period of time. Let me make clear these are depraved, disgusting, and disturbing images, even of their time.
‘One can scarcely imagine the anguish, distress, physical pain, and long-term damage caused to these toddlers being exploited in this way, and what you’ve done by downloading them is create a demand for them and validate the child abusers.
‘Each of those children is a living, breathing human being who had been exploited in a horrible way so you could watch.
‘Your work cannot provide any excuse or reason for you to resort to watching the suffering of children.
‘When police officers commit offences there is a loss of public confidence in the police service as a whole.’
Det Con Aria Powell, of the Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: ‘It is important to stress that online offending is not a victimless crime. People who view these horrific images are effectively facilitating this type of crime, which affects so many children across the world.
‘We have a clear duty to protect members of the public, and especially the most vulnerable, and this sentence should send a clear message to offenders that you will be brought to justice – irrespective of who you are, or your position in society.’
Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Allen, head of Greater Manchester Police’s Professional Standards Directorate, said: ‘The public rightly expects the highest professional standards from those who serve in the police, and it is clear that the actions of Mark Rosebury fall disgracefully below that.
‘He should be appalled by his crimes and the impact his actions understandably have on the public’s confidence in the overwhelming majority of officers who are professional, decent, hard-working people who serve their communities day-in day-out.
‘We have assisted our colleagues in Lancashire throughout this case to ensure that Rosebury is brought to justice for his crimes.
‘Rosebury remains suspended from the force and following his imprisonment today, legally we have now been able to stop his pay with immediate effect. A misconduct hearing will now be accelerated since there is no longer a risk to prejudicing criminal proceedings.’
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