A National Crime Agency officer is facing criminal charges after allegedly viewing indecent images of children on his work computer.
Adam Taylor, 40, is accused of looking at more than 700 illegal images over the course of a decade, between 2012 and 2022.
It is said he accessed some of the material while working for the crime-fighting NCA, sometimes dubbed “Britain’s FBI”.
Prosecutor Andrew Pellington told Westminster magistrates court: “The defendant was a serving officer at the National Crime Agency and potentially used his work computer for look at these images over the period of time in the charges.”
Taylor appeared in the dock on Wednesday to face the charges for the first time.
He is accused of two counts of misconduct in a public office spanning from March 2019 to April 2022 when he was at the NCA.
According to the charges, it is alleged Taylor “willfully and without reasonable excuse or justification misconducted yourself in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder by making indecent images of children on a work device”.
Taylor faces three further charges of taking indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, as well as an allegation of possessing extreme pornographic images involving animals.
The images of children include 221 in the top category of seriousness, the court heard.
Taylor, of Beechfield Walk in Waltham Abbey, appeared in the dock for a short preliminary hearing in front of District Judge Michael Snow.
He was set free on unconditional bail until a hearing at Southwark crown court on June 12.
No pleas were formally entered to any of the charges.
