A DISGRACED former Cumbria Police worker has admitted viewing indecent child images and extreme pornography – including a chicken being sexually abused. 

Carlisle man David Robinson, 56, pleaded guilty to six offences when he appeared before the city’s Rickergate court, including two extreme pornography allegations that related to his behaviour over Christmas 2022.

A former civilian police worker, the defendant lost his job after an investigation in 2014 uncovered how he had a secret interest in child abuse, revealed in his sickening online conversations with other paedophiles.

He was jailed the following year after admitting 20 offences, which included the possession and distribution of the most serious kind of child abuse images.

In one online conversation, he even discussed becoming a foster carer to get access to boys.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate court, the defendant, who formerly lived at Garfield Street, Denton Holme, pleaded guilty to six new offences. They were:

  • Two allegations of breaching his sexual harm prevention order – in one case by deleting his internet history from a device; and in the other by preventing a device from retaining his internet history.
  • Downloading two Category A indecent child images on a date between Christmas Day, 2022 and January 1, 2023.
  • Downloading nine Category B indecent child images over the same period.
  • Possessing extreme pornography on Christmas Eve, 2022, involving bestiality with a horse.
  • And possessing extreme pornography that involved a chicken on Christmas Day, 2022.

Prosecutor George Shelley said the district judge in court did not have sufficient sentencing powers to deal with such serious offending. The defendant’s breaches of the sexual harm prevention order carried a potential sentence of up to three years.

The court heard that Robinson was still on licence following his release from the earlier sentence when he committed the offences.

A probation officer in court also confirmed that the defendant had now been recalled to prison, with a sentence that is due to expire on October 17. District Judge John Temperley sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court for sentence.

He did not ask for a pre-sentence report, commenting: “I am not sure what a report would do to prevent a custodial sentence. It’s the very serious nature of these allegations.”

“These offences are too serious for me to sentence in this court,” the judge told Robinson.

“In any event, I will commit you for sentence to Carlisle Crown Court on August 15. In the meantime, you will be remanded in custody. I have substantial grounds to fear that you would commit further offences.

“These offences were committed while you were subjected to licence, and they are of the same nature as your previous offending.

“These offences go back to 2022 and are as recent as July of this year so there is the ongoing nature of the offending, which causes me concern.” The offences would mean Robinson will be on the Sex Offender Register.

How long that will be for will depend on the ultimate sentence he receives. The defendant was represented in court by defence lawyer Jeff Smith.

At the time of Robinson’s previous sentencing in 2015, Cumbria Police issued a statement condemning the defendant, saying: "Images of this nature have been created via the suffering and abuse of children and they are criminal offences."

When arrested in 2015, the defendant was employed by Cumbria Constabulary as a staff member on the front counter at Durranhill Police Station.