A FORMER police officer has been jailed for two years after he admitted a string of child-related sex offences.

Robert Ryan, of Great Northern Street, Huntingdon, was charged with two counts of making or possessing indecent images of children, two counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to arrange a child sex offence.

The 48-year-old, who appeared at Peterborough Crown Court for sentencing on Wednesday (July 31), had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Prosecuting, Andrew Howarth said Ryan, a father-of-two, had been a detective sergeant with the Metropolitan Police and his duties, although not linked to the charges, had included supervision of registered sex offenders.

He was arrested at home in Huntingdon in December 2010 after a 17-year-old girl, who he had met online, contacted police.

The pair had a sadomasochistic sexual relationship and engaged in ‘age play’, when he pretended she was a little girl, said Mr Howarth, but she became concerned.

“The defendant asked her whether she could find him a 15-year-old girl for sexual purposes,” Mr Howarth addded. “Such was her concern that she reported it to police.”

Officers seized two laptops and found a number of indecent images of girls, believed to be under 16.

Further examination of the computers revealed Ryan had been on internet chatroom sites in 2006 asking others for images of young girls.

Another log from the same year showed a girl, known only as Katie, asking: “Are you ok with me being 14?” He replied: “Yes.”

The court heard that explicit conversation followed, while web cams were in use. Mr Howarth added: “He asked whether he could meet Katie, the suggestion being they would meet for sex.”

For Ryan, Felicia Davy said he had shown genuine remorse and a willingness to seek help to rehabilitate himself. Having recognised he was addicted to pornography, he had been referred to a clinic by his GP, she said.

Significant matters that affected his childhood continued to affect him psychologically and emotionally, she added, and he had been dismissed from the Met and was in debt.

Sentencing, Judge Nic Madge said: “Making or possessing indecent images is a serious offence which involves the corruption, degradation and infliction of pain on real children.

“Lives are wrecked as a result. You must be aware of that given your work as a police officer.

“Sexual abuse of the girls whose photos appear on the internet would not have happened if it were not for people like you prepared to watch such images. It is not putting it too high to say you are indirectly responsible for their sexual abuse.”

He also condemned Ryan for being “directly responsible for the abuse and ongoing corruption of a girl who you believed to be aged 14”.

Ryan was sentenced to a total of two years in prison and made the subject of a five-year sexual offences prevention order.