28 July 2023 , 13:14
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Two retired Metropolitan Police officers have today been jailed for a three-year plot to share "the most depraved" child sexual abuse images.
Jack Addis, 63, and Jeremy Laxton, 63, conspired with a then serving Met chief inspector, Richard Watkinson, 49, to distribute or show indecent images of children. Watkinson was found dead before he was charged, Southwark Crown Court was told.
Laxton also pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child, possession of a prohibited image, possessing an extreme pornographic image and possession of cannabis on or before 20 September 2021.
Laxton will spend five years and nine months in jail (PA)He admitted similar offences at Lincoln Magistrates' Court, for which he was also sentenced on Friday. The ex-policeman further admitted a charge of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of the offence of misconduct in a public office between December 1 2019 and May 1 2021.
Mr Justice Wall jailed Addis for three years and nine months and Laxton for five years and nine months.
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Speaking directly to Laxton of his encouraging Watkinson, Justice Wall said: "It is worse that you encouraged him to behave in this reprehensible way for your own sexual gratification.
"You knew it was likely to reduce faith in the Metropolitan Police."
Addis was jailed for for three years and nine months (PA)Laxton, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, joined the Met Police in 1980, initially serving in Ealing, west London. He retired in 2011. Addis, a dad from Perthshire, Scotland, left the Met and joined the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, again as an armed officer.
Watkinson, who was a serving Met chief inspector for neighbourhood policing at the West Area Command Unit, was found dead at his home in Buckinghamshire on January 12 this year.
Mr Wall continued: "Despite living in very different areas of the country, you would meet together with Mr Watkinson to swap images. The images you traded in were of the most depraved, including in them images of babies and very young children in obvious distress.
"Laxton, you had a substantial collection of similar images of your own. You had more than 19,000 images, over 9,000 of which were classified as Category A. They included images of the most disturbing kind."
Addis appeared at Southwark Crown Court via video-link from HMP Durham, Press Association reports.
He has been serving an 18-month sentence for three counts of voyeurism and possession of indecent photographs of a child since October 2022.
Addis appeared via video link, the sketch by court artist Elizabeth Cook shows (PA)Mustapha Hakme, defending Addis, said: "Once he became aware of their sexual interest in children, he should have broken ties with them but then found himself getting involved and more and more involved.
"These decisions have obviously come back to haunt him and cause him great shame and guilt. In aid he has shown remorse and shame, both of which are genuine.
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"Letters written by family and friends, they speak all of them of a man who was kind and generous, but one who has made a monumental mistake. After some 39 years of marriage, Mr Addis and his wife divorced as a result of these proceedings. His son has effectively turned his back on his father."
In a letter written to court by Addis, he said: "I have been asked to write to you to show the impact that this investigation has had on myself but more importantly my wife and family.
"I made a terrible mistake, one I will regret for the rest of my life. The guilt and shame I feel is overwhelming. I cannot begin to put into words my remorse. I'm still trying to come to terms with the consequences of what I have done.
"What I did was wrong, the psychological impact is too great to comprehend. I apologise to everyone to whom my actions have impacted on."
Ms Karen Walton, mitigating for Laxton, told the court: "Trust in the police is at an all-time low. The idea that Mr Laxton was a serving police officer should have led him to having an insight to victims and protecting victims. He understands he not only has to live with the shame of the personal conviction, but also the public saying he is part and parcel of this rightful assessment of the police.
"These are crimes which are an abuse of trust and have an enormous effect on children. The consequences of these offences are obviously horrific.
"He will have to live with that shame, not only in this courtroom, but thereafter for a period of time."