West Yorkshire PCSO Jonathan Plummer obtained hundreds of indecent images of children, including baby being sexually assaulted, and fantasised about rape, court hears

Jonathan Plummer, 35, a PCSO in Wakefield, is currently on trial at Leeds Crown Court charged with several offences including distributing an indecent image of a child, making indecent photographs of children, possession of a prohibited image of a child and possession of extreme pornographic images.

The alleged offences, which involved Plummer using the aliases “Ronin” and “Vile Degrader” took place between July 7, 2018 and August 15, 2018.

Images included a baby being sexually assaulted, a woman having sexual intercourse with a dog and a lady bound and stabbed with a sword.

Prosecuting Louise Reevell told the jury how a digital examination of Plummer’s Samsung mobile phone revealed 339 still images and 133 moving images of category A - the most serious category, 258 still images and 25 moving images of category B and 1256 still images and 42 moving images of category C.

Opening the case, Ms Reevell said: "A very large number of indecent images were recovered by police. There were a mixture of still images and videos with age ranges of children from babies through to teenagers."

Ms Reevell explained how police recovered pornographic images of children in a cartoon form, as well as a female adult having sexual intercourse with a dog and another image of a woman with serious images.

"The woman in the picture was bound and stabbed with a sword in what we call a snuff movie. Police do not think the picture was real, but it is the nature of it we are interested in."

The court heard that at the time of the offences, Plummer worked for West Yorkshire Police as a PCSO based in Wakefield and was part of the neighbourhood policing team and a cyber prevent officer.

Ms Reevell said: "The prosecution case is the defendant used a number of different names to try and hide his identity in this offending. One of the names was Ronin.

"The defendant denies he is responsible for any of the material, but the prosecution is inviting you to draw inferences from the evidence that it's this defendant and various aliases and they are one and the same person."

His home was searched and his mobile phone and laptop seized.

As well as the indecent images recovered, there was evidence of the defendant using various messaging sites including Kik and Telegram in which the account Ronin was referred to.

Investigators also found regular searches involving the phrases "Ronin, Vile Degrader, rape, raping and raped".

Ms Reevell said police conducted an audit of their Niche computer system which revealed the defendant had used it to search for material relating to offences involving indecent images of children and sexual offences.

Ms Reevell added: "This defendant has been using a variety of aliases. He is Vile Degrader, he is Ronin. He fantasises about rape, he likes pornography, he likes extreme pornography, child pornography and has obtained it, possessed it and distributed it."

Plummer, who is currently suspended from the force, denies all the offences.

The trial continues.