A SERVING officer has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of unauthorised access to a program or data.

Gwent Police’s Counter Corruption Unit were made aware that a response officer, based in Newport, had accessed information on the police system without a valid policing purpose on three occasions between June 2023 and August 2024.

This led to an IOPC directed investigation following a referral from Gwent Police.

In August 2024, as part of a detailed investigation launched by the Counter Corruption Unit, the officer was arrested on suspicion of unauthorised access to computer material, misconduct in a public office and unlawfully obtaining personal data.

Indecent images and videos of children under the age of 18 were recovered from his personal phone which was seized during his arrest. He was further arrested on suspicion of making/ possessing indecent images of children.

He pleaded not guilty to all offences on Monday July 21 at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court and was released on conditional bail to appear in Cardiff Crown Court on Monday August 18.