Former Calgary police officer jailed 8 months for being caught with thousands of child porn images

A former Calgary police officer who was caught with more than 4,000 child pornography images has been sent to jail for eight months.

Thomas Buttle pleaded guilty last year to a charge of possessing child pornography.

Buttle, who was a four-year member of the Calgary Police Service, resigned from the service after he was charged.

Provincial court Judge Frank Maloney accepted a joint submission for an eight-month sentence put forward by defence lawyer Alain Hepner and prosecutor James Rowan.

The investigation began in January 2018 after Tumblr reported to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that several images of child pornography had been uploaded by a user in southern Alberta.

Local ICE investigators were informed and tracked the IP address to Buttle.

Investigators found child pornography on four electronic devices. In total, officers found more than 4,000 child pornography images, all of which had been deleted.

The illegal images were found on two cellphones, a computer tower and a laptop.

Buttle, who had been on bail until Monday, was led away in handcuffs by a sheriff.