A Metropolitan Police officer who had indecent images of children on his iPhone has been cleared by a jury, but could still face jail over pictures of people having sex with dogs.
George Patmore, 31, told jurors at Southwark crown court he had no idea how the 24 illegal images featuring children ended up on his device when he was arrested in July 2022.
Patmore, who had been a PC on the Met’s North East Command Unit, broke down in tears in the witness box as he revealed his battle against a pornography addiction.
He conceded that he had a sexual interest in bestiality, and told the court: “I’m f***ing ashamed. It never goes away, I’ll always be ashamed of that – what I’ve done and viewed.”
He was cleared after a trial of three counts of making indecent images of children, but could still face a jail term in September when he is sentenced for publishing images and messages about the sexual abuse of dogs.
During the course of a three-day trial, Patmore was questioned over the images in his possession, as well as online search terms such as “old man orgy with young teen”.
“I’ve never been taken to sites with indecent images of young teens,” he told the court.
“I would not expect that in a Google search. I certainly didn’t expect that to come up and it never did.”
Patmore fought back tears as he described himself as “two-years sober” from a pornography addiction.
He said he wears his one-year sobriety chip which has been cast in silver, and he is now involved with helping others to beat similar addictions.
Patmore accepted he had “descended to a dark place, looking at adult porn and bestiality”.
But he insisted he had never looked for images involving people who were under the age of 18.
“I have not searched ‘child’, not searched for ‘infant’, anything along that line. There is no record of that, because that’s not occurred.”
Patmore, from Edgware, northwest London, was cleared of three charges of making indecent images of children.
He is due to be sentenced on September 17 for publishing an obscene image.
Scotland Yard said Patmore had been suspended from duty when he was arrested in July 2022.
