Ex-trainee PC avoids jail over child sex offences

A former trainee police officer has avoided jail after pleading guilty to multiple child sexual offences.

Zachary Haile, 27, was sending sexual messages to girls he knew to be underage while completing training with West Yorkshire Police in 2022, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Haile, from Ossett, who resigned from the force while under investigation, also admitted possessing images of child abuse, including 47 Category A images showing the most severe kinds of abuse.

He was handed a total sentence of 24 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, after a judge accepted his "express and sincere remorse", progress with rehabilitation and the "extreme delay" in bringing the case to court.

Last month Haile pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent photographs and one count of engaging in sexual communication with a child.

The defendant had also engaged in sexual communication with other underage children who could not be traced, prosecutor Ciara Church told Tuesday's sentencing hearing.

Church said some of the images on Haile's phone, showing children as young as four, depicted the victims "in visible distress".

Aged 19, he began sexually communicating with a 13-year-old girl, the court heard.

The pair kept in touch for four years between 2018 and Haile's arrest in 2022, with the defendant engaging her in sexualised conversations, making requests for photos and sending her money in exchange for images, sent when she was 17.

He was arrested in July 2022, 14 weeks into his training.

Defending, Sean Smith said his client had taken part in counselling since committing the offences, as well as voluntarily completing the Safer Lives programme, which the court heard was delivered by "highly trained and experienced individuals dealing with people such as [Haile] with sexual convictions and sexually harmful behaviours".

Smith also told the court: "This is a defendant who had no previous convictions, was arrested back in 2022 and has committed no further offending since that time, no doubt in part due to that rehabilitation work that he's done."

The judge in the trial, Recorder Simon Jackson KC, said Haile had submitted a letter to the court which told of his "express and sincere remorse" for the offences, which were said to have taken place while he was struggling with his alcohol use.

He said that while the girl he had messaged had not submitted a victim impact statement, "it is inevitable that she will have suffered a level of distress and anxiety consequent upon your unlawful conduct with her".

Haile was given a 12-month sentence for engaging in sexual communication with a child and a further 12-month sentence for possession the Category A images, to be served consecutively.

He was also given a three-month sentence for possessing 10 Category B images and a one-month sentence for having 24 Category C images, to be served concurrently.

Recorder Jackson said: "This outcome is because, and I have regard to, the long delay before this matter came to court and the progress you have made since.

"You have exhibited, and I accept, remorse. You have shown insight and have made progress, and I am satisfied that there is a substantial prospect of rehabilitation in light of all you have achieved."

Haile was also given a sexual harm prevention order and told to continue his probation requirements.

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