Met Police officer from Portsmouth found to have ‘repulsive’ porn image which he sent to colleague jailed

Pc Liam Boshein admitted to having an extreme pornographic image on his phone at a previous court appearance. A judge told the 25-year-old the offence was ‘too serious’ to avoid a jail term.

Boshein, of Waterworks Road, Farlington, appeared at Portsmouth Crown Court today and had been a trainee Met officer for three months when he forwarded the image to a colleague on WhatsApp. He committed the offence between November 7, 2019, and April 4, 2021.

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Judge Timothy Mousley KC told court the picture was ‘grossly offensive’ and ‘a sentence of imprisonment is unavoidable’. He added: ‘You were a serving police officer and that of course is a very serious aggravating feature.

‘You pleaded guilty at the pre-trial preparation hearing and I will give you appropriate credit for that.’ Boshein’s defence barrister, Ryan Dowding, argued he should not be jailed because he gained ‘no sexual gratification’ from the image and it was sent privately between two friends.

Mr Dowding added it was the only image out of 296,000 found on Boshein’s devices that was pornographic and time in prison would further damage his ‘fragile’ mental health. The court heard Boshein had tried to commit suicide and has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression – taking medication for both. Prosecutor Tim Devlin said the ‘appalling’ nature of the image and Boshein’s position as a police officer justified imprisonment.

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He said: ‘One has to look at this case in the context of what has been going on in the police force and the culture which appears to have arisen where people think it is acceptable as officers to share this sort of information.’ Judge Mousley accepted the officer’s guilty plea, remorse, good character references, immaturity at the time of the offence and mental issues since then all justified a lesser sentence.

He said: ‘This offence is too serious for a non-custodial sentence.’ Before the sentencing, a Met Police spokesman said Boshein had been suspended from his post with the South Area Command Unit.

Ruth Sands, Wessex senior crown prosecutor, said: ‘The image found on Liam Boshein’s phone was frankly repulsive and certainly not something that the public would expect a police officer to have in his possession.’