A POLICE boss has explained how a hard drive containing six indecent images of children was found locked away in a department safe.

The West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner has confirmed that the hard drive belonged to ex-Lord Mayor of Leeds Neil Taggart, who was the West Yorkshire Police Authority chairman.

It was secured in a safe back in 2003 and then inherited by the present West Yorkshire PCC Mark Burns-Williamson.

Taggart, 68, of Marlowe Court, Garforth, pleaded guilty to eight child sex offences in June which were committed between 2010 and 2016. He was jailed for a total of 32 months.

The images were not disclosed by the office of the West Yorkshire PCC until after Taggart pleaded guilty to child sex offences.

A whistleblower flagged up the hard drive's existence to the BBC in 2017 after remembering the device on June 6, 2017.

Mr Burns-Williamson said: “I was informed on 6 June 2017 that my office had a computer hard drive belonging to the former chair of the former Police Authority Neil Taggart, who was charged with and later convicted of serious offences.

“This was the first I knew of its existence. The police were immediately informed and I requested a review of the record and data retention policies and procedures of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

“The retention was an administrative oversight by the former West Yorkshire Police Authority dating back to 2003 and I apologise for that oversight.

“Both the CPS and the judge in the case said that this evidence would not have altered either the charges or the sentence.”

In accordance with the IT practices at the time, the IT equipment should have been destroyed or disposed of after Mr Taggart ceased to be a member of the Authority.

The commissioner said IT practices and information protocols weren’t followed with regard to the storage of this hard drive and that as a consequence of this "administrative oversight" the IT equipment continued to be retained securely by the West Yorkshire Police Authority which transitioned to the OPCC in 2012.

West Yorkshire Police collected the IT equipment on June 9, 2017 and carried out an investigation.

This probe included interviews with staff in the OPCC, retired staff from the former West Yorkshire Police Authority, who stored the equipment, and the PCC.

Once the investigation was concluded, West Yorkshire Police then submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Although the hard drive could have been used as evidence in the original case against Mr Taggart during 2017, the Police were subsequently issued with charging advice from the Crown prosecution Service (CPS) that stated no further action would be taken against Mr Taggart on public interest grounds, as the sentence was not likely to be increased.