A police officer has been sacked after making online sexual advances towards children and their mother and possessing ‘extreme’ pornography.

Adam Leighton-Price, of Portbury, has been fired by Avon and Somerset Constabulary and is awaiting sentencing after admitting a series of sexual offences.

The 45-year-old, of Priory Road, pleaded guilty to one charge of arranging or facilitating a child sexual offence involving a child under the age of 13 at Gloucester Crown Court on January 7.

He also admitted three courts of possessing extreme pornographic images which depicted a person having sex with an animal. He will be sentenced for his crimes on February 14.

And after losing his dignity as his sordid fantasies were exposed in court, Leighton-Price also lost his job.

Today (Thursday) he was found guilty of gross misconduct at a hearing at the police’s headquarters in Portishead.

His behaviour was condemned by a number of senior officials, who terminated his employment and permanently barred him from future roles in law enforcement.

Chief Constable Andy Marsh, who chaired the hearing, said ‘there is no place in policing for such criminal behaviour’.

He added: “The convictions against PC Leighton-Price are serious and are completely incompatible with any role as a serving police officer.

“That an officer can behave in such a way causes me great concern and I know it will have an impact on the confidence of any member of the public who is aware of these circumstances.

“PC Leighton-Price will be dismissed without notice and his name will be added to the barred register to ensure he plays no role at any point in policing.”

An investigation into Leighton-Price was launched in November 2017 after police were informed of his behaviour by the NSPCC.

The officer met a woman on dating site Plenty Of Fish, before later chatting with her on social media platform Kik.

The force’s solicitor Shahzad Hamid told the misconduct hearing the conversation ‘quickly turned sexually explicit with Leighton-Price making sexually suggestive comments and requests to the female and her children’.

The mother reported the incident to the children’s charity, which escalated the matter to the police and the officer was suspended while an investigation was carried out.

Leighton-Price did not attend today as he believed he would not get a ‘fair and just’ hearing, but he emailed Mr Hamid to say he accepted the allegations and would not be offering any defence or mitigation.

Mr Hamid said: “This would cause some concern and potential outrage from the public. The misconduct was so serious that nothing less than dismissal would be required.”