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A former Northamptonshire Police special constable has been jailed for two years and six months for child sex offences.
On December 1, 2021, Steven Hayden-Tift, 45, previously of Northampton, engaged in sexualised chat with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old boy but who was actually an undercover police officer.
During the conversation, which took place over Grindr and Snapchat, Tift sent sexual photos of himself and asked for similar photos back.
Following an investigation by Northamptonshire Police’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Unit (OCAIU), Tift was identified as the offender and arrested at his home address on December 19, 2021.
He was subsequently charged with attempting sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, and was found guilty by a jury following a trial at Northampton Crown Court which ended on March 18, 2023.
He returned to the same court today (May 4) where he was sentenced to two years and six months, half of which he will serve in prison.
He was also handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Detective Inspector Matt Haworth, said: “We are pleased with the outcome of today’s sentencing as it means that Steven Tift will spend time in prison as a result of our investigation.
“Tift’s position as a Special Constable placed him in a position of trust which he grossly abused when he sought to use the internet to abuse a child. Thankfully in this case, the child in question was actually a police officer and we were able to take swift action to arrest him.
“I hope this case reassures the public that we work proactively at Northamptonshire Police to bring people like Tift to justice regardless of who they are or what roles they hold.
"As an organisation, we are determined to identify those who commit wrongdoing and who are not fit to serve the public and we will be relentless in our pursuit of them.
“We will continue working hard to keep our children in Northamptonshire safe and to bring anyone who threatens that safety to justice.”