Jail for ex-PC who posed as teenage boy on MSN to snare young girls

Christopher Snow, 25, asked a series of girls aged between 11 and 14 to undress for him in front of web cameras.

The former officer was eventually caught when a girl to whom he had been chatting went missing and, in the process of trying to track her down, police discovered the communication between the pair on her laptop.

Leeds Crown Court heard today that Snow, who resigned from the force when earlier offences came to light, was found in possession of 652 indecent images, 47 of which were rated at level four, the second most serious category.

Jailing him for three years and nine months and ordering him to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely, Judge Christopher Batty said: “Offences of this sort are all too prevalent.

“The internet is a place fraught with danger because of people like you. The courts must protect young girls from people like you and of course protect them from themselves.”

Prosecutor Heather Gilmore said Snow had posed as a 15-year-old boy and groomed seven girls aged between 11 and 14 in online chatrooms in September 2009.

His behaviour was discovered when a 13-year-old girl went missing and police seized her laptop as they set about finding her. They found that she had been chatting to a number of people online, including Snow.

The defendant, who was not involved in the girl’s disappearance, then had his laptop seized, from which police recovered the huge stash of images. The girl was later found safe and well.

Snow had a number of pseudonyms to lure his vulnerable victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, including “Northern Monkey” and “AJ is here”. He chatted to them online using MSN over a number of days before asking them to expose themselves on their web cameras or send him pictures of themselves undressed.

Three of the vulnerable girls undressed for Snow and one touched herself intimately and gave him her mobile number after he had groomed her online, the court heard.

Snow, from Leeds, even asked one of the girls to meet him three times, but nothing came of it, the court was told.

He pleaded guilty to eight offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He also admitted 10 charges of making indecent photographs of children and breaching a sexual offences prevention order by having a camera on his mobile phone when prohibited from doing so.

Mike Greenhaigh, mitigating, asked that Snow’s guilty plea be taken into consideration.

Speaking after the case, Det Con Lisa Wright, the investigating officer from West Yorkshire Police, said: “Christopher Snow will no longer be in a position to abuse the trust that was placed in him by these vulnerable young girls who believed he was a teenage boy.

“I hope the sentence will bring some closure to his victims and their families. I would also remind parents to be aware of how their children use the internet and, where possible, try to ensure that children are in a supervised part of the house when accessing the internet.”

In 2006, Snow narrowly escaped jail after pleading guilty to eight offences involving making and possessing indecent images of children between October 2004 and December 2005.

He had served as a constable with West Yorkshire Police for 20 months, joining in November 2004 as a police constable at Holbeck Police Station, but he resigned when the charges were brought against him.

They involved 895 indecent photographs and video clips which were discovered on two computers.

Bradford Magistrates Court heard 61 of the images were at level five, which can involve incidents depicting bestiality, and 28 were at level four, which includes images involving children and adults.

The ages of the girls ranged from three to 14 and some of the pictures involved bondage scenarios with girls being tied to chairs in an indecent manner.

In one disturbing photograph a girl aged over 11 was pictured with a carving knife above her genitals.

Snow had searched the internet for photographs of children and the average age of the girls he viewed on his computer was between 12 and 13. He also visited website forums featuring under-age girls.

Snow was given a six month sentence at the time, suspended for two years, and given 200 hours of unpaid work.