Avon and Somerset PC tried to make mum abuse own children

Adam Leighton-Price had suffered "years and years of being ill", his defence lawyer said

A police officer who used a dating app to try to groom a mother to sexually abuse her own young children has been jailed for a year.

Avon and Somerset PC Adam Leighton-Price, 45, previously admitted making the requests to the mother, who had a girl aged two and a six-month-old baby.

The mother was upset with what he was asking for and raised the alarm.

Sentencing Leighton-Price at Gloucester Crown Court, Judge Ian Lawrie said he "betrayed" his police constable role.

In November 2017 Leighton-Price, of Portbury, admitted arranging for an adult to engage in sexual activity with a child under the age of 13, along with three counts of possessing of extreme pornographic images involving animals.

The court heard how Leighton-Price found the woman on a dating website and they later messaged each other via the Kik messenger app.

He adopted a pseudonym, pretending he also had a young daughter and was of a similar social background to the woman, before encouraging the abuse.

Investigating officers also found the extreme pornographic images on his laptop and a sexual fantasy novel which referred to "relationships between parents and children".

'So unsettled'

In his sentencing remarks the judge added: "It is of note that you lied about being the father of a three-year-old and being abused as a child.

"Your sexual suggestions of sexually abusing her children are clear, on a sequence of occasions over two or three nights.

"The mother became so unsettled that she rightly went to the authorities."

Leighton-Price's lawyer argued his client's actions could be put down to him having leukaemia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, the judge rejected that, arguing Leighton-Price's cancer diagnosis was first made in 1990 and that it was "managed well".

Leighton-Price had been a serving officer since 1994 until his dismissal last month. He had no previous convictions.

He was also placed on the sex offender register for 10 years.