Police trainee incited child to provide sex pics

Jason Hicks, 31, jailed for four years

A former student police officer who sent sexual messages and explicit images of himself to a nine-year-old girl online has been jailed for four years.

Jason Hicks, aged 31, also persuaded the victim into sending him intimate photos, and tried to do the same with four other children.

The offences were uncovered while Hicks, of Bishopsteignton, was in training to be a Devon and Cornwall Police officer.

He was immediately arrested and suspended and subsequently dismissed without notice.

Officers found more than 1,200 indecent images and videos of children on his laptop, iPad and other digital devices seized when a warrant was carried out at his home.

Hicks fully admitted offences dating back to 2012 in his first police interview, telling detectives he felt relieved to have been caught. 

He pleaded guilty to a total of 13 charges, admitting engaging in sexual communication with a child – a nine-year-old girl from the south west - and inciting her to engage in sexual activity between March and April 2021.

He had befriended the girl online by posing as an older teenager on TikTok before moving onto Snapchat and exchanging sexually explicit messages with her. 

The child’s parents discovered she had been communicating with an adult male and contacted police in their area.

Enquiries and research later led officers to Hicks in Devon, who was at the time a student police officer and was still in training school. He had not yet conducted any public-facing, frontline duties.

The police urgently planned and executed a warrant at Hicks’s home. He was dismissed without notice following fast-tracked misconduct proceedings in February 2022 and has been placed on the College of Policing barred list.

Hicks was convicted of a further four counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with children and another four of attempting to incite them to engage in sexual activity

He exchanged sexual Snapchat messages with four children he believed were aged between 11 and 13. The victims have never been identified despite the best efforts of investigating officers. Analysis linked their IP addresses to the USA, Sweden and the Yorkshire area. 

Hicks also pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs of children. The images and videos found on his devices involved children as young as eight and included 127 in the most severe ‘Category A’.

He was sentenced to four years in prison with an extended three-year licence period and was given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The judge ordered the destruction of his digital devices.  

Temporary assistant chief constable Steve Parker said: “I would like to commend the bravery of the young victim in this case and her family in coming forward and reporting these appalling crimes.

“We remain committed to bringing perpetrators of such offences to justice and those responsible will always be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“All police officers, including those in training, have a privileged role in being part of a force responsible for the safeguarding of vulnerable people. The actions of Jason Hicks were wholly wrong and illegal and he now faces the consequences of that.

“Devon and Cornwall Police takes any reports of illegal or inappropriate conduct extremely seriously. All officers and staff are expected to abide by the Code of Ethics and ensure the highest standards of behaviour, both on and off duty.

Detective inspector Simon Foster, who led the investigation, added: “Devon and Cornwall Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team proactively seeks out offenders, no matter their position in society.

“Our mission is to protect children from online predators, whether that be convicting offenders for possessing child sexual abuse material or protecting children who are groomed online.”

David Barnes, district crown prosecutor, said: “Women and girls have the right to feel safe everywhere, including online. We will continue to work in partnership with the police and other agencies across the criminal justice system to strengthen and improve our joint approach to tackling these appalling crimes."