Former Pc sentenced for making indecent image

Robert Tedds, who retired as an officer in 2011, had also taken pictures up strangers’ skirts in a petrol station, an office, in the back of a car and on a train, prosecutors told a judge at Worcester Crown Court yesterday.

Tedds was sentenced to a three-year community order with supervision and ordered to sign the sex offenders register after admitting three charges of making an indecent image of a child and five counts of outraging public decency.

The 58-year-old, previously an officer with Warwickshire Police, had been working in a civilian role with the force’s firearms licensing unit when he carried out the offences over a three-week period between May and June, this year.

He had also carried out “some driving duties on a part-time basis for senior officers”, according to Warwickshire Police.

Tedds asked for 10 further matters of outraging public decency to be taken into consideration by the court.

Sentencing, His Honour Judge Cullum told Tedds: “When you pressed the record button you also unfortunately pressed the self-destruct button.

“At the age of 58 you are a man of good character who had a very long career as a police officer in a variety of important roles.”

He added: “You put at risk everything you had worked for and have now lost a significant amount of what you had achieved over your life.”

Mr Cullum said Tedds had “lost his job”, “his good name” and had “saddened all that knew you” through his behaviour.

William Rickarby, prosecuting, said Tedds’ offending only came to light when a man spotted him taking a picture “up the skirt of one of the customers” at a petrol station in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire on June 10.

The man reported what he saw to staff, and a review of the petrol station’s CCTV uncovered five separate occasions when Tedds had taken such pictures, using a mobile phone.

Tedds, of Grange Road, Leamington Spa, was questioned and two mobile phones and computer hard drive seized.

“On one of the phones, a number of similar images at different locations were found, some of them were also in the back of cars, or in an office environment, while some were on a train,” said Mr Rickarby.

On the second phone police found an indecent video of a naked teenage girl which Tedds filmed in June, and then deleted the same day.

A forensic examination of the handset discovered the deleted file stored in the phone’s cache.

Michael Aspinall, in mitigation, said Tedds felt “absolute shame”.