Former West Yorkshire Police officer accessed sickening child images

Judge REJECTS attempts to ban reporting disgraced officer's address

David Griffiths was still working as a civilian "investigation" officer with the police when he was arrested in January this year.

Griffiths, of Thornleigh Avenue, Wakefield, was placed under investigation by his West Yorkshire colleagues when evidence of his offending came to light.

Leeds Crown Court heard police seized two laptops and a mobile phone from the 69-year-old.

They were found to contain over 200 sickening images of children being sexually abused.

Caroline Wigin, prosecuting, said 107 images were at category A - the most serious level of offending.

Images involving sexual abuse of animals were also discovered.

Miss Wigin said a three hour-long video was among the illegally downloaded material.

It featured children aged between 11 and 14 years old being subjected to painful sexual abuse.

Griffiths was also found to have made internet searches including 'peado', 'pre-teen' and 'underage'.

The images were accessed between June 2016 and January 2018.

The court heard Griffiths was a serving police officer for 30 years before retiring.

He then took up a civilian role with the force as an "investigator".

Griffiths resigned when an investigation began into his offending.