A policeman caught with a supposed extreme animal pornography on his mobile phone has quit the force.
Gareth Tench was arrested by fellow Manchester policeman after they found a supposedly grossly offensive 35-second video clip featuring a horse.
He was spared jail after being convicted by a jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, but his nine-year police career is over.
Tench was being investigated by fellow police over an unconnected allegation when they found the clip on both his personal phone and a folder called chill out on his computer. He admitted receiving the video in July 2006, saying it had been sent as an attachment to a text message.
Tench accepted he had watched the clip once, but said he had then deleted the message and with it, he believed, the video. The court heard that when his mobile became faulty, he had data, including photographs and images, transferred from the mobile on to a laptop, and ultimately to his home computer.
The court was told that after being arrested in January 2010, he gave no comment answers to all questions about the video.
Tench was found guilty of possession of extreme pornography on his phone. But the jury cleared him of an almost identical charge of having the same clip on his computer because they could not be certain he knew it was there.
He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.
Supt Peter Turner, from the Greater Mancheter Police Professional Standards Branch, said: Possessing extreme pornography is a serious and criminal offence and Pc Tench’s conduct has fallen well short of the high levels of professionalism and integrity expected from all our staff.
