WIREDGOV

A former NCA officer has pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children, possessing extreme images, and misconduct in a public office.

40-year-old Adam Taylor from Waltham Abbey was arrested by officers from the NCA's Anti-Corruption Unit in April 2022, after it was established that an IP address linked to his home address was accessing illegal content.

Taylor, who joined the NCA in 2014 and was working as an intelligence officer at the time, was immediately suspended.

During searches of his home address a large number of laptops, tablets, USBs, hard drives, DVDs, CDs and other electronic storage devices were found. They contained more than 700 indecent images of children, and another 200 images of extreme pornography or bestiality.

Some images were found on a computer Taylor had been given for work purposes.

He was later dismissed from the NCA for gross misconduct.

At a hearing at Southwark Crown Court today (12 June) Taylor pleaded guilty to four counts relating to the images and two counts of misconduct in a public office. He was bailed until sentencing on 2 August.

NCA Director General (Operations) Rob Jones said:

"The NCA is at the forefront of tackling online child abuse and it is vital that we identify and root out anybody within the agency involved in this or any other criminal activity. Whilst shocked and saddened that an NCA officer could be convicted of such crimes, we recognise that the scale of the online child sexual abuse threat means we must remain vigilant and work proactively, as we did in this case, to identify any potential risk in the agency.

"Individuals like Taylor have no place in law enforcement. It was other NCA officers, working diligently and covertly to protect the public, who were responsible for bringing him to justice.

"Behind each of those images recovered from Taylor's devices was a vulnerable child who had been abused. We remain determined to pursue offenders like him wherever in society they operate, and to protect the victims of online child sexual abuse."