A retired Merseyside Police officer was caught with sickening child sex abuse images on his mobile phone.
Ronald Hardcastle, 65, who had worked categorising such images for another police force, was also found to have bestiality images on the device.
A hearing at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, November 18, heard how the 65-year-old admitted he had chosen the online user name of ‘Bad Uncle James’ “to attract other users who might have an interest in indecent images.”
READ MORE : Busy road to stay closed for several more hours over stability concerns
Hardcastle’s sordid behaviour came to light during investigations by the child exploitation unit of the National Crime Agency (NCA) into illegal activity on a Kik Messenger account.
This led officers from Merseyside Police's online child abuse team, armed with a search warrant, to his home in Kirkby on February 16 this year.
During the searches various electronic devices were seized, said Frank Dillon, prosecuting.
When his Samsung mobile phone was examined a total of 275 indecent images - including 202 videos and 29 photographs of extreme porn - were found.
Another 18 images were in the most serious category of child abuse, which includes rape, and 17 of them were videos.
One image came from Pinterest and all the rest from Kik Messenger.
Mega software from the New Zealand website had been installed on September 15, 2020. Mr Dillon explained that “was encrypted cloud storage, described as a well known source for indecent images.”
The court heard there was evidence images had been shared or distributed in group chats with other users but Hardcastle only faced one distribution charge involving one Category B image.
Mr Dillon said when Hardcastle was interviewed on August 3 this year he was “candid…. He said he knew it was wrong, illegal and he should not have done it.”
Hardcastle, of Southney Close, Kirkby Park, had worked for Merseyside Police for about 30 years and after retiring 11 years ago joined an agency supplying staff to police forces which resulted in him spending four years working as a civilian with Greater Manchester Police.
For some of that time he worked with their child protection department “and had been responsible for categorising images of this sort.”
Mr Dillon queried whether looking at the images in that role had distorted his thinking or whether he had sought it because of a pre-existing interest.
The job ended after he was involved in a serious accident which left him with broken bones and in hospital for some months. Hardcastle told how “he ended up on anti-depressants and became isolated from his 'police family' and became curious about that sort of material having worked in that area.”
In his interview he also said he was not aware possession of the bestiality material was an offence “and found it amusing rather than gratifying.”
Hardcastle, who has no previous convictions, said he was ashamed of his behaviour and denied having sexual interest in children.
Imposing a suspended prison sentence on Hardcastle, who was using a crutch to walk and clutching a bag of medication, the judge Recorder Ian Unsworth, QC, said he was “a willing participant” in what had taken place.
But he said on balance taking into account his “obvious remorse and shame and copious personal mitigation” while a prison sentence was warranted he would suspend it.
He sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and imposed a four month curfew with an electronic tag between 9pm -6am.
Hardcastle also has to attend for up to ten days rehabilitation activities and 28 sessions of the Horizon programme, designed for those convicted of internet sexual offences.
The judge imposed a ten year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.
Hardcastle had pleaded guilty to seven offences involving possessing and making indecent images of children; possessing extreme porn for and distribution, all in January and February this year.
David Woods, defending, said that Hardcastle was being supported by his wife and son, who both sat in the public gallery.
He said:“They are of course shocked by his behaviour. He has had a career of over 30 years in public service and had been commended in the past because of his hard work.”
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
