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Former PC jailed for underage sex
Mark Brigham
A LGBT Police liaison officer has been jailed after having underage sex
Mark Brigham, 38, pleaded guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court to four charges of sexual activity with a fifteen-year-old boy, and was jailed for two and half years.
Brigham was serving with the Metropolitan Police when the incident took place in Portsmouth in 2008.
He met the boy at a party and had been asked to offer some advice to the boy, who had just come out as gay.
Despite being told that he was underage, Brigham engaged in sexual activity with him, and later kept in contact via Facebook.
Richard Atchley for the defence said: “He resigned immediately and did not wait to be sacked.
“He has genuine remorse and abjectly apologises to all for behaviour that came at the bottom of a very long downward spiral caused by what was going on in his private life.”
At the time Brigham had been going through a number of personal issues at the time, including the break-up of a relationship and large debts.
Sentencing Brigham, Judge Roger Hetherington said: “The offences are aggravated by the disparity of age between the two of you. You were more than twice his age.
"You were someone he could expect to look up to and expect some guidance from.”
Brigham was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders’ register and was banned from working with children,
