Ex-officer admits ‘horrific’ child abuse image charges

A former police officer has pleaded guilty to possessing more than 100 examples of the “worst kind of child abuse imagery”. James Duffield, 34, an ex-West Midlands Police officer who was based in Birmingham, viewed images of children as young as two years old. At Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, he admitted making 72 category A images of a child between December 2013 and August 2017. He also admitted possessing 27 category B and seven category C images on Wednesday (December 13). Duffield, from Solihull, was arrested by detectives from West Midlands Police’s Online Child Exploitation Team in August this year. He was dismissed from the force on November 21. An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Duffield was looking at the worst kind of child abuse imagery – material which showed incredibly vulnerable children being subjected to the most horrific acts. These are real victims who have gone through hell and who now must live with the life-long damage child sexual abuse can cause. “As a police officer, Duffield would have known that by possessing these awful images he has helped to fuel an industry which feeds off children`s suffering. Every time someone clicks on this material, the demand for more children to be abused increases. “The NSPCC is calling on tech companies, government and law enforcement agencies to eradicate this growing problem at its source by stopping this content from being published and ensuring it is quickly taken down when it does appear online.” Duffield is due for sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on January 10. He was released on bail on condition that he does not have unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 18.