Sacked PSNI constable jailed for misconduct and having indecent photos and videos

Sacked PSNI constable 34-year-old Robert Jason Ainscough was given a nine-month sentence for misconduct in public office and a four-and-a-half month sentence for the offences relating to indecent photos and videos of children but Craigavon Crown Court Judge Roseanne McCormick QC ordered them to be served consecutively, half in jail and half under supervised licence conditions.

In addition, she ordered Ainscough to sign the police sex offenders register for 10 years, banned him from working with children and also imposed a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, designed to protect the public from further offences.

Ainscough, originally from Dublin but whose address was given as c/o Lurgan PSNI station, faced two separate indictments where he had pleaded guilty to six counts of misconduct in public office on one and 13 charges of making indecent images of children on the other with all the offences committed in various dates between February 19, 2014 and September 16, 2016.

The court heard that in relation to the misconduct charges, Ainscough exchanged “highly sexually explicit” messages, including texts, photographs and videos with three different women while on duty.

In addition Ainscough, who was a constable for eight years before dismissed as a result of the charges, used the police computer to access the file on one of the women which would have made clear to him her “particular vulnerabilities.”

Ainscough had also taken screenshots of a file of a man he claimed he was about to arrest, sending the image to one of the women quipping that his arrest subject “looked like a kung fu master”.