A police officer has admitted spending more than a decade downloading and viewing indecent images of children.
Stephen McGoldrick, 50, was arrested by his own force, Gloucestershire Constabulary,
after indecent images were found on his mobile phone in April.
Officers then seized multiple devices belonging to McGoldrick, including a laptop and USB flash drives, containing more than 9,000 incriminating images.
McGoldrick pleaded guilty to five counts of making indecent images of children, between 2008 and 2019, at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (13).
The ten devices seized contained five Category A images, 23 Category B images and 9,134 Category C indecent images of children.
McGoldrick was suspended from the force as soon as the allegations came to light and resigned when charged with the offences.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Hanson, of the Gloucestershire Constabulary, said: “These were very serious offences involving the abuse of innocent children who we should be seeking to protect.
“This abhorrent crime is completely unacceptable, and seems even worse when committed by a police officer who should hold a place of trust and respect in the community.
“There is certainly no place for individuals like this within Gloucestershire Constabulary.”
McGoldrick, who is due to face misconduct proceedings, was bailed to appear for sentence at Bristol Crown Court on September 11.
Bail conditions include having no contact with persons under the age of 18 and having to reside at a specified address, which is not in Gloucestershire.
Former cathedral organist sentenced after admitting sexual offences against children click here
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
