Former policeman admits child porn charges

A former traffic policeman from Sheffield has admitted swapping pictures of children engaged in sexual activity with another man.

Richard Sweet, a 49-year-old former constable with the South Yorkshire force, exchanged the images with a man from Northern Ireland.

He was given a three year community rehabilitation order, which includes sex counselling.

Judge Mr Justice Andrew Smith told Sweet that he would not go to prison as he had turned his back on child pornography before the offences were detected.

Chat room

Sweet deleted the disc on which he kept the images, 12 months before the police came to question him.

Hull Crown Court heard that Sweet was tracked down after a member of the public complained that indecent pictures of children were appearing in an internet chat room.

Officers also arrested the man in Northern Ireland, who is now serving three years in jail.

Sweet pleaded guilty to making eight indecent images of children.

Unblemished record

He also pleased guilty to one charge of distributing an indecent image of a child by email and asked for six other offences to be taken into consideration.

Sweet's barrister, Richard Barradell, said the former officer was married and had served the police with an unblemished record for 24 years.

He was dismissed when the offences came to light.

Sweet was ordered to sign on the National Sex Offenders Register for five years and to keep police informed of any change of address.