A FORMER Met Police officer who was jailed for performing a sex act over a young girl in Berkshire will not have his prison stay extended.

Andrew Kirkland, of Stoney Stanton, Leicester, was convicted of sexual assault after a week-long trial in early February.

Reading Crown Court heard how Kirkland performed a sex act on himself over a young girl when he thought she was sleeping at her Berkshire home in March 2021.

The lewd and shocking incident came just three days after Kirkland had searched for porn of girls being ‘violated’ while asleep or passed out.

READ MORE: Met Police officer searched for sleeping porn days before assault on girl

Following the trial, it was revealed that the seedy ex-London-based policeman, was sacked by the Met after he was caught calling chat lines with his work phone back in 2014.

Sentenced straight after the jury’s verdict came through, the 42-year-old was handed a four prison sentence.

He will serve half of this before being released on licence.

However, an application to ask the Court of Appeal to consider prolonging the convict’s jail time was recently made under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

The scheme allows members of the public to ask the Attorney General’s office to examine sentences handed down by Crown Courts if they believe the sentence is not strong enough or if they believe there was an error in the sentence.

However, the Attorney General dismissed the application.

READ MORE: Ex-police officer jailed for sexual assault

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office explained why.

They said: “The Solicitor General was shocked by this case and wishes to express his sympathies to the victim and her family.”

“After careful consideration the Solicitor General has concluded that this case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal.

“A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

"The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”

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Kirkland was the subject of another Crown Court hearing on Friday, February 18 after an application was made to give the defendant an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

This means Kirkland cannot have any contact with anyone under the age of 16 unless:

  • It is inadvertent
  • He is supervised by the child’s parent or guardian
  • Supervised by someone appointed by the child’s parent or guardian and they have knowledge of his convictions
  • He has written consent from children’s social services for the visit.