CONCERNS have been raised after a former shipyard police officer convicted of possessing indecent images of children moved near two nurseries and a primary school.

Andrew Stevenson, 24, was a serving firearms officer stationed at Barrow's shipyard when he downloaded 165 indecent images.

He was dismissed without notice by the Ministry of Defence Police but avoided jail when he was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court.

It has now emerged that Stevenson, who lived in Ulverston at the time of his offending, has moved to Scotland.

A report in a Scottish national newspaper said he had moved to Kilmaurs, Ayrshire 'in a quiet street with a number of young families, less than 500 yards from one nursery and within half a mile of another nursery and primary school'.

One mum reportedly said it was 'absolutely disgusting' to find out Stevenson was living 'just yards away'.

Another resident with two young children they were 'shocked'.

"Obviously, he has to live somewhere but it’s not a good idea for him to be staying around so many children – kids around the same ages as the ones he was ­downloading illegal images of," they said.

The court heard after receiving intelligence Cumbria police executed a search warrant at Stevenson’s home in Ulverston in August 2021.

Officers seized an iPad and an iPhone and following forensic examination the devices were found to contain 94 of the most serious category A indecent images of children, 37 category B images and 34 category C.

Some of the images were accessed via a cloud storage facility that the defendant was using.

Stevenson was sentenced to a three year community order.

He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and told he must attend a Making Changes Programme.

The defendant's IT equipment was also confiscated.

Stevenson was issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told to sign the Sex Offenders register for five years.

Following the sentencing, Katie Beattie for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “As a serving police officer, Andrew Stevenson was expected to uphold the law and protect people.

“By downloading these images he was feeding directly into an industry which sexually exploits children.

An MOD spokesman said: “We condemn the actions of this former Ministry of Defence police officer, who has been dismissed without notice.

“Upon confirmation from Cumbria Constabulary that their investigation had led to PC Stevenson being charged, he was suspended from duty."