An ex-police officer has been sentenced to 32 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to three counts of possessing indecent photographs of children and one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Murray Weir, 27, an ex-police constable for Essex Police used an online messaging app to communicate with children as young as 12.

He engaged in sexually explicit conversations with them and groomed his victims in an attempt to obtain photographs and meet with them.

A former deputy head teacher of a primary school has been jailed for child sexual abuse offences.

Matthew Smith, 35, appeared at Southwark Crown Court today (9 August 2023) for a total of 22 charges relating to child sexual abuse, including causing the sexual exploitation and abuse of a child, encouraging the rape of a child, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, arranging the sexual abuse of a child, and distributing, making and possessing indecent images children (IIOC). The charges relate to offences which took place between June 2016 and November 2022.

Rosemary Ainslie, Head of the Special Crime Division at the CPS, said: “After carefully considering all of the evidence provided to us by Humberside Police, we have authorised charges against Michael Lockwood, 64, for nine offences under the Sexual Offences Act 1956.

“Mr Lockwood has been charged with six counts of indecent assault and three offences of rape against a girl under the age of 16, alleged to have been committed during the 1980s.