Lee Ashcroft: ex-Greater Manchester police officer sentenced over child abuse video

A former Greater Manchester police officer has been sentenced at court after downloading a child abuse video.

Lee John Ashcroft, 39, formerly a constable with Greater Manchester Police, was arrested after police raided his home in Hyde in October 2020. Acting on intelligence, they searched his laptop and found he had downloaded and viewed a Category A video (the most serious category) of a child, which was almost eight minutes long, twice on 17 August 2018.

After initially pleading not guilty to making an indecent image of a child, in October this year, he changed his plea to guilty.

Ashcroft was today (19 December) sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. He was given a 12-month Community Order with 120 hours’ unpaid work and 30 days Rehabilitation Activity Requirement. He was issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and must sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years. He was also ordered to pay £1,500 in prosecution costs and a victim surcharge.

Martha Dowd, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “By downloading and viewing the video Lee Ashcroft, a serving police officer, betrayed his position of trust in the community in the most abhorrent way.

“His job was to uphold the law and protect the public; today he has been held accountable for actions which fell far short of upholding those responsibilities.

“The CPS and the police will continue to work together to robustly prosecute anyone who commits such offences, particularly those in positions of trust in our society.”