Two retired Metropolitan Police officers have admitted a three-year plot to share child sexual abuse images with a serving Met chief inspector, who was found dead before he was charged.

Jack Addis, 63, and Jeremy Laxton, 62, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, May 25, to a charge of conspiring with Richard Watkinson, 49, to distribute or show indecent images of children.

Police said the images and videos had been shared via hard drives that the men would post to each other and hide in concealed spaces in their homes.

Watkinson, who was a serving Met chief inspector for neighbourhood policing at the West Area Command Unit, was found dead at his home in Buckinghamshire on January 12.

He had been suspended from duty following his arrest in July 2021 and was that day due to answer bail to be charged with the conspiracy, as well as three counts of making indecent photos of a child, voyeurism and two counts of misconduct in public office.

His death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious by Thames Valley Police, which is preparing a report for the coroner after an inquest was opened and adjourned.

According to the charge, the three men conspired to “distribute or show indecent images of children to each other” between January 1, 2018 and July 10, 2021.

The images, which were found on a computer hard drive, included 2,516 in Category A – the worst kind – 1,032 in Category B and 1,701 in Category C.

Laxton, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, also pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child, possession of a prohibited image, possessing an extreme pornographic image and possession of cannabis on or before September 20, 2021.

The images include 6,086 in Category A, 4,039 in Category B, 3,597 in Category C, seven prohibited images of a child and 56 extreme pornographic images which were “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an extreme character” depicting a person having sex with an animal, according to the indictment.

He further admitted a charge of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of the offence of misconduct in a public office between December 1, 2019 and May 1, 2021.

The court heard Laxton, who appeared in the dock wearing a dark grey suit, has previously pleaded guilty to similar offences and was awaiting sentencing at Lincoln Crown Court, while Addis, from Perthshire, is a serving prisoner in Scotland.

He appeared in court by video-link from HMP Dumfries where he is serving an 18-month sentence for three counts of voyeurism and possessing indecent photographs of a child.

Judge Tony Baumgartner adjourned sentencing, which will be by a High Court judge, to a date to be fixed and granted Laxton conditional bail ahead of the next hearing on June 23.

The judge said: “A lengthy custodial sentence is inevitable but I will extend bail again to allow him to put his life in order.”

Met Commander Jon Savell said: “The content that these men had been viewing has been described by seasoned specialist investigators as some of the most serious that they had ever seen.

“We must never forget that in each video or picture is a real child victim who has suffered unimaginable abuse.

“We are sickened that they are former colleagues.”