October 2021 Paedophile former police officer spared jail over child sex abuse images A former police officer who viewed child sex abuse images while serving as a constable in Kent has been spared jail. Thomas Blant, 38, was arrested after the National Crime Agency (NCA) discovered that he had accessed illegal material and tried to hide his activity. Pervert Blant – who has since been kicked off the force – not only viewed the pictures but then used software to “disguise and hide” the sites he had been trawling on the dark web. Now father-of-two Blant, 38, a Kent Police constable for six years, has admitted two charges of downloading illegal images of children. Judge Philip Statman told him: “You thought you would never be caught because of the protection you had installed on your computer. You have a predilection for young girls. “You must understand your actions and your appearance in court has put your wife through hell. She is clearly a caring and loving mother.” He added that there would be many in the community who would now hold him in “contempt because of the ignominy attached to these crimes”. Blant, who admitted two sex charges, was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years and attend 40 sessions to deal with his rehabilitation. He was also given a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told to sign the Sex Offender’s Register for 10 years. After his arrest, Blant moved out of the family home in Wye near Ashford and has since lived in Southend, having only controlled visitation rights to see the children. Officers from the National Crime Agency raided his home in January last year and quizzed Blant and his wife after it was revealed that the child image site had been accessed from the house. Prosecutor Tim Probert-Wood said that Blant’s wife – was able to prove she was elsewhere – and the police officer admitted it was him. But a judge at Maidstone Crown Court heard how Blant had installed on his computer and mobile phone software which immediately deleted much of the evidence of the porn sites Blant had installed “highly sophisticated” software designed to prevent people from knowing which sites had been accessed and which images had been downloaded and a web cleaner which covered his tracks. But a forensic examination later revealed he had accessed category A images showing the rape or torture of children