A police officer who sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl on duty has been jailed.
Dean Dempster, 35, from Manchester, attacked the child when he was responding to a domestic disturbance on 29 December 2023 while on duty in Oldham.
During the investigation, it was also found he had superimposed his face onto child abuse images.
At Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, Dempster was jailed for nine years.
He was one of three officers responding to the disturbance involving an adult and children.
It was while taking an account from the vulnerable young girl, away from colleagues, that he sexually abused her.
A complaint was received that evening and the next morning Dempster was confronted by his supervisor and arrested the same day.
Dean Dempster. Pic: GMP
Searches found children’s underwear and abuse images
It later became apparent that on the morning of his arrest, Dempster had deleted some material and apps from his mobile.
A search of his home uncovered another phone, a bundle of four pairs of children’s underwear, shredded underwear in a bag, a disc of images and two hard drives.
A review of Dempster’s devices revealed a further offence – making indecent images of children. He pleaded guilty to six counts, including two counts of the most serious category A – covering 104 images, of which 30 were described as pseudo images.
Alongside that, there were 440 category B images, including 129 pseudo images, and 2,472 category C images, including 39 pseudo images.
A large number of the pseudo images had been digitally altered to superimpose Dempster with children.
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The investigation into the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officer also uncovered other images on his phone taken from his body-worn camera at the incident in December 2023 of a second child, and another clothed child at a separate incident dating back to 2022.
In relation to this, he pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office.
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‘Dempster represents the very worst of society’
GMP added that it had sacked Dempster at the “earliest legal opportunity” in May of this year and he has since been barred from policing.
He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
Terry Woods, GMP’s deputy chief constable, said: “I am angry and appalled at this abhorrent abuse of responsibility and trust.
“Dempster represents the very worst of society. He is not a police officer; he is a child sex offender, a criminal, and he has no right to be near police uniform or serve the public.”
Police added they reviewed thousands of hours of Dempster’s previous deployments at GMP and found no further evidence of criminal behaviour but asked anyone affected by the case to contact them.