A MARRIED policeman tried to impress a woman he met via an online dating website by sending her an indecent photograph of his seven-year-old daughter, a court has been told.
The Brisbane District Court was on Monday told the now 39-year-old former constable, who cannot be named, sent the image to the woman via his mobile phone and was arrested after the woman reported him over the offensive picture.
The court was told that when his police colleagues seized his mobile phone, laptop and home computer they found he had also downloaded 185 images of child pornography.
The man, who resigned from the Queensland Police Service after his arrest, was sentenced to 15-months jail after pleading guilty to Commonwealth criminal offences of distributing child exploitation material and using a carriage service, a mobile phone, to access child pornography between December 2011 and March 2012.
The man, who was supported by his wife in court, also pleaded guilty to one Queensland criminal offense of indecent treatment of a child - his own daughter.
Prosecutor Julie Aylward told the court the photograph the man sent of his daughter was so appalling she requested the picture be sealed after it was tendered in court.
She argued that it was apparent the father sent the picture in the mistaken belief it would hold some form of "sexual currency'' with the woman.
"It comes after three months of looking at child exploitation material on his phone,'' Mrs Aylward said.
"He's the father of the child.
"He's meant to protect her, not exploit her."
The court was told the father resigned his role as a sworn police officer rather than undergo an investigation by the QPS's Ethical Standards Command.
Mrs Aylward sad the man tried to claim he only found the images online while searching so-called naturalist websites.
However, she said the man's explanation was blown to pieces when investigators found he used search terms such "RU13", "sweet young kids under13'' and "images sweet young'' to source the pornographic pictures.
Judge Julie Dick rejected submissions by the man's lawyers that the downloading of the images was accidental.
Judge Dick said she also found it very disturbing the man saw nothing wrong with sending the indecent photo of his child and that he had also introduced his children the woman he had met online.
"(This) is a quite serious act of indecent treatment (of a child),'' she said.
"You are a very egocentric man with a lack of empathy for your daughter."
Judge Dick ordered the man be released after serving three months the 15-month term in custody.
She also ordered he be released on a two-year good behaviour bond under supervision from a probation officer
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