A police IT employee who illegally photographs photographs of homicide victims and crime scenes at his dwelling has been jailed for 3 years.
Digital forensic specialist Darren Collins, 56, who is claimed to have acted out of ‘morbid curiosity’, admitted misconduct in a public workplace final month after being sacked by Staffordshire Police for gross misconduct.
Birmingham Crown Courtroom heard Collins ‘thought he may simply get a telling off’ if colleagues discovered he had been storing and viewing photographs with out authorisation.
Opening the case in opposition to Collins, from Little Haywood, close to Stafford, prosecutor Simon Davis mentioned the defendant had first appeared in court docket in 2019 and had since seen varied proceedings delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Davis informed the court docket Collins had admitted a cost referring to unlawful entry to and storage of photographs of deceased individuals between January 2014 and December 2018.
Collins, the court docket heard, had used a ‘again door’ technique to entry photographs of homicide scenes, together with a deposition website, footage taken at autopsy examinations, and others referring to street visitors collisions.
Birmingham Crown Courtroom heard Collins ‘thought he may simply get a telling off’ if colleagues discovered he had been storing and viewing photographs with out authorisation
After his arrest, Collins, who had labored for Staffordshire Police for 18 years, claimed he had seemed on the photographs as a result of digital forensics was a ‘stepping stone’ and he wished to develop into a scenes of crime officer.
Addressing Friday’s listening to, defence barrister Kelly Cyples mentioned Collins suffered from post-traumatic stress dysfunction because of official work on investigations into little one abuse.
She informed Choose Roderick Henderson: ‘The crux of this case is that, on the time, Mr Collins definitely didn’t realise that what he was doing was prison.
‘He accepts and understands, with the advantage of hindsight, he mustn’t have and was not permitted to take a look at different photographs past the parameters he had been given for his precise position.
‘There was no malicious intent and the photographs have by no means been proven to anybody else.’
Passing sentence, Choose Henderson mentioned family of victims pictured in a number of the photographs had been knowledgeable that that they had been checked out by Collins.
‘These individuals after all suffered dreadfully with the lack of their family members,’ the choose mentioned.
‘To find now that you simply had been wanting (on the photographs) for nothing however gratuitous curiosity is an extra grievous insult to them, their reminiscence and their households.
‘The behaviour of this defendant is totally distinctive in my expertise. This can be a case which calls out for speedy custody.’
In a press release issued after Collins pleaded responsible, Staffordshire Police mentioned a rigorous and intensive investigation had discovered no proof that the photographs had been shared.
A complete assessment of present safety and entry methods and processes had additionally been carried out, the drive mentioned.