A North Yorkshire Police officer who downloaded more than 8,000 indecent images of children has avoided a prison sentence.

Christopher Groom, 41, of Main Street, Claxton, trawled the internet for images of youngsters using search terms such as ‘naked young teens’ and ‘youngest naked models’, Leeds Magistrates Court heard today.

Among the photos downloaded by Groom were sexual images of children between eight and 14-years-old, said prosecutor Charles Macrae.

Groom, who has since resigned from the force, was arrested after police from North Yorkshire’s online abuse team searched his home on December 16, 2021. They seized a computer tower and a mobile phone and took the devices away for analysis.

Groom was brought in for questioning and gave a prepared statement but denied he had been searching for indecent images of children and said he was “shocked” images were found on his device.

Forensic analysis of Groom’s computer tower revealed that he had downloaded 8,707 Category C images of children over what is thought to be a seven-year period.

Mr Macrae said that “file names and internet searches associated with child sexual abuse” were found on the tower.

He was interviewed again in January after the forensic report and provided a further prepared statement in which he claimed he had “not deliberately sought out” indecent images.

Groom, of Main Street, Claxton, was charged with one count of making indecent images of minors between December 2014 and November 2021. He admitted the offence and appeared for sentence today.

Following his arrest, Groom claimed he had initially downloaded what he thought was legal pornography only to find it contained indecent images.

However, the forensic report debunked his claims that the downloads were accidental because “the searches had been made where such (indecent) images were likely to be”.

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Matthew Savage, mitigating, said Groom was now a changed man having voluntarily enrolled on an offenders’ prevention course. He added Groom had resigned from the force because he “felt that his position was untenable”. Mr Savage said:

“He remains deeply embarrassed and ashamed about his behaviour.”

He said Groom “understands fully the impact that this type of offending has” and that his arrest and subsequent conviction had been a “very salutary lesson”.

‘Not a victimless crime’

District judge Richard Kitson said the huge number of images was an “aggravating factor” in Groom’s despicable offences:

 “You understand that this is not a victimless crime. At some point, these photographs had been taken of very real children who have suffered that abuse.

“You were a police officer for a number of years and you have now lost that. Not only have you lost that employment, the public have lost what under other circumstances was a very good and brave police officer. You were a man not only of good character, but positive character.”

Mr Kitson told Groom he would not be sending him to jail because the probation service said he was at low risk of reoffending and could be rehabilitated in the community.

He said he had also taken account of the steps that Groom had taken to address his offending and his early guilty plea.

Instead, Groom was given an 18-month community order which includes 30 rehabilitation-activity days and 150 hours’ unpaid work.

He was also ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for five years and made subject to a five-year sexual-harm prevention order to allow police to monitor his internet activities.

As part of his notification requirements, Groom will have to periodically report to Scarborough Police Station.

Warning: some readers may find aspects of this article distressing

A former Harrogate hospital IT worker was labelled a danger to children as he was jailed yet again for downloading images of children.

Martin Richard Shepherd, 50, from Harrogate, was already under lifetime curbs on his internet use after being convicted of downloading three-quarters of a million indecent images of children in 2017.

But when police officers paid him an impromptu visit in September 2020, they found he had been deleting “vast” amounts of data on his computer, York Crown Court heard.

Analysis of his devices revealed that the computer buff had downloaded hundreds more images – including videos featuring child rape – while on prison licence and subject to a lifetime sexual-harm prevention order to stop him trawling the web for illicit material.

Shepherd, who had “curated” the images according to their levels of depravity, told officers he found “irresistible” the urge to view images of children being sexually abused.

He admitted possessing indecent images and appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday.

Jailed for five years in 2017

The court heard he was working as an IT expert at Harrogate District Hospital at the time of his original offences in 2016, when police found about 750,000 indecent images of children on his computer devices.

This led to a five-year jail sentence in 2017 for possessing and distributing indecent images, as well as two counts of voyeurism and computer misuse in relation to his work at the hospital.

Shepherd, described as a loner, served half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence in July 2019.

In September 2020, police monitoring officers made an unannounced visit to his home in Harrogate and found he had been deleting a “vast amount” of data from an Android tablet, in breach of the sexual-harm prevention order. This resulted in a further two-year jail sentence in January last year for four breaches of the order.

However, no illegal images were found at the time and it was not until later that a further police investigation unearthed yet more images of children which Shepherd had stored on five memory sticks.

Deleting images

Prosecutor Jonathan Foy said that Shepherd, formerly of Chatsworth Grove, had started deleting the images – about 125 gigabytes in total – within six months of being released from prison. Mr Foy said:

“When interviewed, he admitted that as soon as he was released from custody, his temptation to (view) pornographic images of children was something he found irresistible.”

Analysis of the devices revealed that Shepherd had downloaded hundreds of indecent images of all levels of seriousness, including 148 photos and videos rated Category A – the worst kind of such material. They included images of girls aged between four and 11 years of age being raped by adult men. One of the children in the depraved movie clips was unconscious.

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Mr Foy said:

“He troubles himself not only to obtain (the indecent images), but to separately save them (on USB sticks), curate them (in terms of) highest quality”

There were a “large number” of young victims featured in the scenes.

Downloading indecent images since 2002

The court heard that Shepherd, who worked in the hospital’s IT department for 22 years, had been downloading indecent images of children since 2002, but his computer skills enabled him to encrypt the huge stash of material and avoid detection for 14 years.

In 2016, police cyber-crime detectives finally snared him and found that he had amassed about three-quarters of a million indecent images of children.

They found a “massive library collection” of images featuring the serious sexual abuse of “very young” children including 12-month-old babies and youngsters who had been drugged or plied with alcohol.

Shepherd had painstakingly catalogued the images in 22 encrypted volumes and used an “extremely-complex” system of passwords to hide them. He also distributed about 20 depraved videos on a paedophilic file-sharing site.

His previous conviction for voyeurism related to two young women whom he secretly filmed getting undressed and walking around naked at a property in Harrogate after setting up covert video equipment. Those offences occurred between 2005 and 2012.

The previous offence of computer misuse, or gaining unauthorised access to private computer files, occurred at Harrogate District Hospital where Shepherd, who was working in the IT department, had somehow “abstracted” photos from a family computer of a young girl in her underwear, bikini and school uniform.

Resigned from hospital in 2016

Ashleigh Metcalfe, mitigating, said Shepherd had been on custodial remand for over a year and had been working in Hull Prison’s upholstery department.

However, a probation report noted that since being forced to resign from his hospital job in 2016 following his arrest for the original offences, Shepherd had spent much of his time searching for indecent images of children.

Judge Simon Hickey said the discovery of even more indecent images “reinforced” his opinion that Shepherd was a dangerous offender “and that he will simply continue to reoffend”.

He said he had noted the “extremely young” ages of the children featuring in the sordid videos.

He told Shepherd:

“You admitted (to police) that you can’t stop yourself finding children of this age irresistible. You were downloading a vast amount of material. The children depicted are clearly vulnerable and visibly distressed.”

Shepherd, described as intelligent, was jailed for 12 months. He will be released from jail halfway through that sentence but will then have to serve an extended two-year period on prison licence.

Mr Hickey also added 10 new prohibitions to the sexual-harm prevention order for the protection of the public, namely young girls. Shepherd will remain on the sex-offenders’ register for life.