Detective tasked with watching child sex abuse sues her force
Louise Walshaw, 51, carried out interviews with child and adult victims of sexual and graded child sex abuse videos while working as a detective constable with North Yorkshire Police.
But Ms Walshaw said her mental health started to deteriorate within months of joining the force in 2017, leaving her physically unwell and unable to eat on days when she had to view the harrowing images.
The detective is now suing North Yorkshire Police for damages of more than £100,000, claiming the force was negligent in repeatedly exposing her to the child abuse images without adequate psychological support.
Ms Walshaw was medically retired in 2023 after being forced to take time off work as she struggled with stress and high blood pressure.
North Yorkshire Police disputes her claim, saying investigating and prosecuting criminals who prey on children is work of the utmost importance, and that reviewing images and carrying out interviews is an essential and indispensable aspect of that work.
Police dispute Ms Walshaw's claim that she spent more time than others in carrying out the task, and claim that she had not raised her concerns until 2020.
It maintains that in 2019 the force carried out 68 victim interviews, of which Ms Walshaw undertook just two. In 2020 she carried out 22 interviews, from a total of 110, and none in 2021.
Ms Walshaw, of Leyburn, North Yorkshire, had spent five years working as a nurse in accident and emergency before joining South Yorkshire Police in 2000. After her son was born she decided to join North Yorkshire Police in 2017 so she could focus on general crime rather than child sexual abuse cases.
According to a claim issued in London's High Court she became increasingly anxious and preoccupied with the potential risk to her son posed by paedophiles, struggling with allowing him to go to after school clubs, or to a nursery with male staff members.
Her solicitors at Penningtons Manches Cooper state in legal documents: 'Even when she was not required to grade images, she felt a feeling of dread knowing the task was coming up.
'From 2018 onwards [her] mental health started to significantly deteriorate. She experienced increasing anxiety symptoms and excessive preoccupation about the risks to her son from predatory paedophiles. She instructed her husband not to take their child to public toilets.'
'Part of the job'
Ms Walshaw's legal team claims that when their client discussed with Det Insp Paula Eccles the possibility of moving to a uniformed role, she was told viewing images of abuse was 'part of the job' and refused permission to leave the department.
Ms Walshaw will tell the court that she was troubled that some officers had photographs of their own children on their desks while viewing images of child sex abuse.
At one stage she raised the possibility of a desensitisation course to be run by the National Crime Agency.
But she claims that the force failed to give her either a psychological assessment or screening.
Ms Walshaw was signed off work for three months with stress, and returned to work in January 2020 with reduced hours, where she continued to view sexual images.
When a member of her family disclosed he had been sexually abused as a child Ms Walshaw became even more anxious, leading in one incident to her abandoning her shopping trolley in a supermarket when a man smiled and winked at her son in June 2020.
On another occasion she saw a paedophile she had interviewed laughing and joking in a supermarket, and found herself bursting into tears.
Ms Walshaw was eventually temporarily transferred to the vulnerability assessment team as a detective sergeant, but claims the work continued to adversely impact her health as it still involved challenging safeguarding issues and distressing material.
She says that when told to return to CID, she had a panic attack in her garden and was prescribed beta-blockers, followed by the anti-depressant Sertraline.
'The claimant continues to experience a constant fear and preoccupations about risks to her son, and to children generally, from sexual predators. She has sustained a Specific Phobia. The prognosis in relation to this phobic anxiety is gloomy,' her lawyers state.
Ms Walshaw claims she needs psychotherapy and medication, and is handicapped on the open labour market as a result of her injuries.
North Yorkshire Police disputes her claim, rejects her account of events and requires her to prove her allegations.
In 2018 she was noted to be an experienced and confident detective and the force says she chose not to attend welfare reviews.
Police also accuse Ms Walshaw of negligence, saying she failed to communicate that she found victim interviews unduly stressful, failed to attend welfare checks, and failed to have any adequate regard for her personal safety.
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