July 2023 Ex-Met Police officer who had indecent images of children avoids jail   A Metropolitan Police officer has been spared jail after he paid for videos of babies being sexually abused.  PC Darren Hourigan, 51, claimed he “may have been hacked” after he was caught accessing a portal which included 3,490 videos and 295 still images of children. Amongst the perverts vile collection were 2,253 images in Category A, the most serious kind showing the rape and torture of children The portal included videos of babies as young as one being sexually abused.  PC Hourigan, of Coteford Street in Tooting, was a serving officer in the South Area Command Unit, which covers Bromley, Croydon and Sutton, when he was caught with the images.    In March 2020 the Met’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse team found that two email addresses attributed to PC Hourigan had accessed the portal.  When he was arrested at his home in March 2020 he told colleagues he had no idea about the images.  The portal included four folders with child abuse images, including one titled ‘baby’ and another titled ‘1 to 5’.  In a second interview PC Hourigan said he had used the file sharing platform to view cycling and athletics videos.  He continued to deny ever viewing indecent images of children but said “I may have been hacked”.  PC Hourigan eventually admitted his offending on April 26 when he pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent images of children.  On Friday (July 7) he appeared at Kingston upon Thames Crown Court where Judge Barklem gave him a 10 month prison sentence suspended for one year.  This means he will not see a prison cell unless he offends again during that period.  He was suspended from duties before he was charged on September 21 last year. He later resigned from the police force.  April 2023 Met officer pleads guilty to indecent images offences A Metropolitan Police officer has pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of indecent images of children. PC Darren Hourigan, 51, of London who is attached to the South Area Command Unit, appeared at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday, 26 April where he pleaded guilty. Amongst the perverts vile collection were 2,253 images in Category A, the most serious kind showing the rape and torture of children He will be sentenced at the same court on Friday, 7 July. The charges follow an investigation by the Met’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse team supported by the Directorate of Professional Standards which led to Hourigan’s arrest in March 2020. He was charged by post on 21 September 2022 and appeared at Kingston Crown Court on 14 November 2022, where he was bailed ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing. PC Hourigan was suspended prior to being charged.