Former student police officer caught with child images has phone and tablet confiscated

Keel Walker, from Lower Gornal, had been a student officer with West Midlands Police for six weeks when he was arrested after an email was traced last year.

Investigating officers were made aware of an account username linked to an email address belonging to the 21-year-old where indecent images had been discovered.

Ms Karen Cockitt, prosecuting, said a warrant was executed, Walker was arrested and officers found indecent images after seizing his iPad and iPhone.

The iPad was found to have the most severe Category A moving images as well as Category B images while the iPhone had Category C images on it.

Ms Cockitt told Dudley Magistrates' Court on Monday that an investigation into Walker's web history found various searches for the dark web, Dropbox, and other sites.

The 21-year-old, of Redhall Road, Lower Gornal, formally resigned as a police officer on September 29 last year and was charged with three counts of "making" indecent images by way of downloading them.

The court was told that the former student officer was "only a child" when the offending behaviour started and that he had shown remorse, is of good character and has no previous convictions.

Walker's barrister said the links with police were "troubling" but there was "no suggestion he did, or would have, used his role in the police in connection with this offending behaviour".

Walker was barred from working for the police at a disciplinary hearing on Friday.

The former student officer pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children at a hearing on on January 27. This included seven moving images classed as Category A, two moving images and three still images of Category B and nine still images and one moving image under Category C.

He was handed a 24-month community order and told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also put on a sex offender programme and must complete rehabilitation.

Walker must also pay £280 in costs, had his iPad and iPhone confiscated, and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order until 2027.

District Judge Michael Wheeler, sentencing, said: "You pleaded guilty before me some weeks ago to possession, or making indecent images of children, where the making consists of downloading them and possession – but nothing further."

He added the charges spanned a "significant period of time" and there was "no suggestion" his conduct in committing the offences were assisted by the fact he was a police officer.