CHILD abuse campaigners have branded a jail sentence handed to a corrupt paedophile police officer a "disgrace".

Former Surrey Police constable Simon Quinn made 1,100 indecent images of children and owned three extreme pornographic images.

Quinn, 43, of The Street, Rustington, pleaded guilty to ten charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing three extreme pornographic images and was given a six-month sentence at Hove Crown Court last week.

But Quinn was already serving an 18-month sentence for selling police information to The Sun newspaper when his haul of paedophile pictures was found.

The six-month sentence for the stash of child-porn pictures was concurrent - meaning he will serve it alongside his previous previous 18-month sentence and serve no further time.

Child abuse victim Phil Johnson, of Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS), said: “It’s a disgrace. At the very least the sentence should run consecutively.

“What people tend to forget about child abuse images is that a child has to be abused in order for someone to take them. Anybody who trades in them or handles them is perpetuating the abuse. They’re as guilty as the abusers themselves.

“A six-month concurrent sentence like this sends out a terrible message. He should serve separate time for his child abuse crimes.”

Quinn’s latest prosecution for his collection of sick pictures came after an investigation by the Paedophile On-Line Investigation Team at Sussex Police.

He was arrested at his then home address in Hawthorn Close, Horsham, in August 2013.

Detective constable Chris Smith said all of the images were obtained from the internet and there was no evidence of any contact with children.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “Anyone convicted of child abuse-related charges should face a deterrent punishment otherwise the wrong message is conveyed to the public and offenders. Images of children being sexually assaulted are abhorrent and have no place in society.

"We should never forget that the children in these pictures have been abused and that these are crime scenes.”