A Neighbourhood Policing Team officer has been jailed for two years after a jury convicted him of distributing an indecent image of a child and storing hundreds more on his phone.

Jonathan Plummer, 35, a Police Community Support Officer with West Yorkshire Police, was today found guilty of all seven charges against him following a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Plummer, who worked in the Wakefield area as part of the Neighbourhood Policing Team and as a Cyber Prevent Officer, called himself Vile Degrader and fantasied about rape, the jury heard.

He had lost his job, his partner, his home and his car, his barrister Richard Canning said.

Judge Neil Clark made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years and ordered Plummer to sign on the sex offender register, also for two years.

During the trial, the court heard that Plummer was into BDSM. He was a martial arts instructor with an interest in Samurai.

He was convicted of one allegation of distributing an indecent image of a child at Category A; three charges of making an indecent photo of a child; one offence of possession of prohibited images of a child (cartoons); and two charges of possession of an extreme pornographic image.

Prosecutor Louise Reevell said during the trial that indecent images of children, from babies to teenagers, at Category A, B and C, were found on Plummer’s personal phone.

There were also extreme pornographic images. One was a “snuff movie” showing a naked and bound woman being stabbed with a sword. She appeared to die at the end of the film but the police didn’t think it was real.

All the images were created between July 7, 2017, and August 13, 2018.

Plummer was arrested on August 14, 2018, and devices were seized from his flat, including his phone with the images on it.

There were 339 still and 133 movies at Category A; 258 stills and 25 movies at Category B; and 1,256 still and 42 movies at Category C.

Plummer had made searches for “rape, raping and raped.”

“He had an unhealthy interest in rape as well as child pornography,” Mrs Reevell said.

An audit of a police computer system had found that he had been looking at sexual offences and cases involving indecent images of children.

Mrs Reevell said his employment had nothing to do with these sorts of investigations but he was trying to assist in the covering up of his offending.

Plummer told investigating officers he was into BDSM but insisted that the indecent images and prohibited images of children were nothing to do with him.

He told the jury he had “many sexual preferences” but no interest in indecent images of children.

He may have used the name Vile Degrader “historically” as a link to BDSM but it was nothing to do with indecent images of children. He labelled child sexual exploitation “an abhorrent crime.”

Mr Canning said Plummer had lost his positive good character and that counted for a lot.

“He’s lost everything there is to lose and I would ask Your Honour to take a merciful course,” he said.

Plummer was drinking a bottle of Bourbon a night at one time but he hadn’t touched alcohol for months.

He had not abused his position as a police officer to offend and the distribution charge involved a single image.