TWO retired Metropolitan Police officers have been jailed for a three-year plot to share 'the most depraved' child sexual abuse images together with a serving Met chief inspector, who was found dead before he was charged.

Jack Addis, 63, and Jeremy Laxton, 63, were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday (July 28), having previously pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring with Richard Watkinson, 49, to distribute or show indecent images of children.

Watkinson, who was a serving Met chief inspector for neighbourhood policing at the West Area Command Unit, was found dead at his home in Saunderton, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, on January 12, following welfare concerns.

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The court heard he took his own life.

He had been suspended from duty following his arrest in July 2021 and was that day due to answer bail.

According to the charge, the three men conspired to distribute or show indecent images of children to each other between January 1 2018 and July 10 2021.

The images, which were found on a computer hard drive, included 2,516 in Category A – the worst kind, 1,032 in Category B and 1,701 in Category C.

Laxton, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, pleaded guilty to a slew of other offences for which he was sentenced.

Mr Justice Wall jailed Addis, from Perthshire in Scotland, for three years and nine months, and Laxton for five years and nine months.

On top of the conspiracy charge, Laxton also pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child, possession of a prohibited image, possessing an extreme pornographic image and possession of cannabis on or before September 20 2021.

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Laxton further pleaded guilty to a charge of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of the offence of misconduct in a public office between December 1 2019 and May 1 2021.

Laxton admitted separate offences at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court, for which he was also sentenced on Friday.

In Lincoln, he admitted three counts of possessing indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images, possessing prohibited images and possessing cannabis.

Laxton was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for the conspiracy charge running consecutive to 15 months in jail for encouraging or assisting the commission of the offence of misconduct in a public office.

The overall sentence will run concurrently to two years in prison for each offence relating to category A images and eight months for each of the remaining offences.

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A sexual harm prevention order is in place for both defendants for the next 10 years which restricts their access to the internet and their contact with children.