The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scottish officer admits plotting to distribute pictures of child abuse
Two retired Metropolitan Police officers have admitted a threeyear plot to share child sexual abuse images with a serving Met chief inspector, who was found dead before he was charged.
Jack Addis, 63, from Perthshire and Jeremy Laxton, 62, pled guilty at Southwark Crown Court to a charge of conspiring with Richard Watkinson, 49, to distribute or show indecent images of children.
Watkinson, who was a chief inspector for neighbourhood policing, was found dead in Buckinghamshire on January 12.
He had been suspended from duty following his arrest in July 2021 and was that day due to answer bail to be charged with the conspiracy, as well as three counts of making indecent photos of a child, voyeurism and two counts of misconduct in public office.
His death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious and an inquest has opened and adjourned.
The court heard Laxton had previously pled guilty to similar offences at Lincoln Crown Court, while Addis is a serving prisoner in Scotland.
He appeared in court by video-link from HMP Dumfries where he is serving an 18-month sentence for three counts of voyeurism and possessing indecent photographs of a child.
According to the charge, the three men conspired to “distribute or show indecent images of children to each other” between January 1 2018 and July 10 2021.
The images, found on a computer hard drive, included 2,516 in Category A – the worst kind – 1,032 in Category B and 1,701 in Category C.
Laxton, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, also pled 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 September 20 2021.
The images include 6,086 in Category A, 4,039 in Category B, 3,597 in Category C, seven prohibited images of a child and 56 extreme pornographic images which were “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an extreme character” depicting a person having sex with an animal.
He also 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.
Judge Tony Baumgartner adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed and granted Laxton conditional bail ahead of the next hearing on June 23.
The judge said: “A lengthy custodial sentence is inevitable but I will extend bail again to allow him to put his life in order.”
At the defendants’ first appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this year, prosecutor Edward Franklin said some of the images discovered in the investigation were at the “highest end” of Category A.
Met officers found Watkinson’s body at an address in Saunderton, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, following welfare concerns.
Commander Jon Savell previously said: “Chief Inspector Watkinson was facing extremely serious and concerning charges, as the result of a painstaking and thorough police investigation.
“Before this matter came to light, we had no previous information about these allegations or to indicate the officer posed any risk to the public.”