Ex-Humberside Police inspector had ‘revolting’ indecent images of children

Ian Walpole has been given a suspended sentence and ‘only just’ avoided being locked up

A former Humberside Police inspector who had a “long and impressive” career has “only just” avoided prison after being found with “revolting” indecent images of children on his phones. Police discovered 246 photos and videos depicting child abuse on 43-year-old Ian Walpole’s devices after he was arrested in July 2024, a court heard.

His crimes were uncovered during a Police Scotland investigation in June 2024 into another man who had sent videos of himself abusing a child to a contact named in his phone as Ian. Walpole admitted three counts of making indecent photographs of children at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court last year.

During a sentencing hearing at Lincoln Crown Court this week, Walpole was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 21 months. Recorder Luke Blackburn said the fact Walpole, of Roxby, North Lincolnshire, had thrown away a 21-year career in policing was his own fault.

He said few people would have known better the “profound” impact child sexual abuse images have on victims than a police officer. The recorder said: “The reality of child sexual exploitation is, of course, real-world harm done to real victims – whether they are in this country or far abroad makes no difference at all.”

Prosecution counsel Michael Masson told the court an iPhone 11 belonging to Walpole had 89 illegal files, of which 26 were pictures in the most serious category A, 13 were pictures in category B, and 41 were pictures in category C. There were also nine category A videos.

On an iPhone SE, 157 illegal files were recovered – 123 picture files of which 36 were category A, 24 were category B and 57 were category C. There were also 24 category A and 10 category B video files, one of which was more than 16 minutes long and featured the abuse of a 12-year-old boy.

Mr Masson said the fact that attempts had been made to delete or hide the illegal files was an aggravating factor, as was the age and vulnerability of the children depicted. He added that Walpole’s crimes would have a negative impact on the public’s perception of the police and had the “potential to undermine the public’s trust in the police”.

Defending Walpole, Andrea Parnham said the defendant had no previous convictions and had taken significant steps to address his offending by undertaking self-funded courses. She said: “The defendant does display remorse for his actions and has taken steps to address his offending behaviour.

“The defendant is clearly accepting his offending behaviour and accepting he needs to address the root cause of his behaviour and is doing so.”

She added that he had suffered a “great deal of stress from work” leading up to the offending. She said: “He was a serving police officer, he has lost a 21-year police career. He knows that’s his fault, he has lost the related income and has lost friends and colleagues from the publicity that has come from his court appearances.

“He has had suicidal thoughts and has been prepared to act on them. He no longer has a career as a police officer, he knows and accepts that.”

Miss Parnham added that he had re-trained as an HGV driver and was ready to start applying for jobs in the field once the proceedings were over. She said: “Any custodial sentence would be of a length that there would likely be very limited rehabilitation work, his rehabilitation journey would stop and it wouldn’t allow him to continue with it until he was released.

“He does not present a high risk of reoffending or harm. He wants to start his career as an HGV driver. He has received punishment through the loss of his reputation and his career.”

Recorder Blackburn said: “There are significant matters of mitigation. There has been a delay in you arriving at your sentence which I recognise for a man of good character… is a considerable burden.

“You had a long and impressive career over more than two decades ending with you holding the rank of police inspector. All of that is now lost, all of that loss is your fault.

“You have undertaken work to begin to tackle what you have accepted is your sexual interest in children. That is not only a sign there is a problem to be tackled, but that you realised there is a problem.”

He added that he was “only just” persuaded the sentence could be suspended. He said: “There is, I perceive, a strong prospect of rehabilitation, not least because you began that process yourself. Although revolting, what you did was not so serious it must be met with immediate custody.”

Walpole was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and will have to undertake 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 100 hours of unpaid work.

In a statement after the sentencing hearing, Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Baker, from Humberside Police, said: “As police officers, our duty is to protect and keep people safe, especially the most vulnerable in our communities, and Walpole’s actions deeply undermine these fundamental and core responsibilities.

“Any form of criminality committed by a police officer is appalling but crimes that involve children such as these are sickening and inexcusable. We want the public, our local communities, to have trust and confidence in their police force, and I understand how news such as this may shake their belief in us.

“I want to be clear that we will not condone, accept or tolerate such wrongdoing and I want to offer my assurance that we will always actively pursue individuals such as Walpole to ensure they do not work for us. We will always ensure anyone who breaks the law in any way is rooted out and held accountable for their actions.”

The force said a separate internal investigation that saw Walpole face an accelerated misconduct hearing in March last year would have resulted in Walpole’s immediate dismissal for gross misconduct, had he not resigned in January 2025.

The misconduct matters were uncovered as part of the criminal investigation and included sharing confidential information from police systems, the force added.