Decorated London Police sergeant, 40, who claimed it was part of his job to download sickening child abuse images is jailed



A decorated Metropolitan Police officer who claimed it was part of his job to download pornographic images of children has been jailed for six months.

Sergeant Sanjay Rai, 40, downloaded more than 200 indecent images and films of young girls while he was based in Lewisham, south east London, between September 2006 and January last year.

Rai, who received three commendations for bravery during his 20-year career with the force, said it was ‘necessary’ for him to download the images for the purposes of crime prevention.

The collection included 127 level four pictures - the second most serious type of material, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Rai was charged following his arrest on February 2 last year and has since been suspended, pending disciplinary proceedings.

He denied four counts of making indecent images but was convicted by a jury following a trial earlier this month.

The court heard he had an ‘alarming’ lack of remorse or insight into his offences. The hearing was told he continued to remain in denial and intended to lodge an appeal.

Sentencing Rai, Judge Deborah Taylor told him: 'The jury rejected the defence you raised that it was necessary to download these images for the purposes of the prevention of crime.

'That’s to say your defence was you were carrying out research to prepare courses in child trafficking which you proposed to develop outside your work as a police officer. 'No one from the authorities was informed about your research and you didn’t inform them about the type of activity you were doing.

'It’s clear you don’t accept the guilty verdict. But the fact is the jury did find you guilty, it wasn’t necessary to download those images, and you have shown no remorse in respect of that.

'These are serious offences and you knew that downloading such images was very clearly regulated by the law, to prevent exploitation of vulnerable and young children and also the circulation and demand for such images.'

Rai shook his head throughout the hearing and appeared to be on the verge of tears as the sentence was passed. He waved to his wife, sitting among friends and relatives in the public gallery, who wept as he was led out of the dock to begin his sentence.

Prosecutor Piers von Berg told the court Rai downloaded a total of 226 images including 39 level one, 25 level two and 35 at level three. ‘The images were of children aged between 12 and 15 and involved a combination of photographs and moving images.

‘Clearly this involves a public official, a police officer. From the evidence, at least four of the images were stored and the defendant said in interview that he viewed up to 75 of the images.’

Michael Forward, defending Rai, a re-married father-of-one, said he was ‘exceptionally disappointed’ with the jury’s verdict and intended to lodge an appeal.

‘The defendant, over a period of five to six years prior to his arrest, was involved in preparing courses for a number of outside companies for which he had prior permission from the Metropolitan Police.

‘There was no permission sought in relation to him downloading the images he did. The jury didn’t accept it was necessary for him to download any images for the preparation of any course he intended to do.’

But Mr Forward insisted Rai had not distributed the porn and was ‘not part of any wider circle of moving images around the internet.’

Rai, from Strood, Rochester, Kent, denied four counts of making indecent images of children. He was cleared of a fifth charge of failing to disclose any code in relation to material authorities were trying to access during the investigation.

Original report here

　

　

　

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