Guernsey’s former Chief Minister Jonathan Le Tocq has been sentenced to nine years in prison after admitting to a string of indecent image offences spanning at least nine years.
Victims of his watched as he was sentenced by Guernsey’s Royal Court today.
The disgraced politician and pastor made notes at times as the prosecution outlined his crimes before his defence advocate offered mitigation.
He was expecting a custodial sentence, said Advocate Claire Tee, who asked Judge Catherine Fooks and the Jurats to “please be as lenient as you feel you can”.
Le Tocq admitted 15 offences:
- Seven counts of sending by means of telecoms network an indecent message
- Making a pseudo-indecent image of a child – Minimum of 230 images, Category A
- Making an indecent image of a child – Minimum of 13 images, Category A
- Making a pseudo-indecent image of a child – Minimum of 486 images, Category B
- Making an indecent image of a child – Minimum of 10 images, Category B
- Making a pseudo-indecent image of a child – Minimum of 1731 images, Category C
- Making an indecent image of a child – Minimum of 10 images, Category C
- Distributing a pseudo-indecent image of a child – One image, Category C
- Possession of extreme pornographic images – 218 images
The offences were committed between 2016 and 2025.
His victims – which included local women and children as well as unidentified persons – were only made aware of his criminality using their images when he was arrested by Guernsey Police in July 2025.
The local police acted after a UK police force traced messages from a phone belonging to a convicted sex offender back to Le Tocq.
Le Tocq’s wide range of offending included using AI platforms to ‘nudify’ innocent images of women he knew, and their children, to create pseudo-indecent images.
Some of these images involved doctored images of underage girls in sexually explicit poses.
The images he created were accompanied by indecent messages that he sent to other people, while posing as women, using the Instagram and X social media platforms. These messages were described as “deeply offensive, shocking, and revolting”.
He also used AI platforms to put the faces of children and women that he knew on to adults engaging in pornographic acts, along with his own face superimposed on to the male protagonist in some of the images.
We have found it impossible to find words adequate to reflect the deep depravity of what you have done
Judge CATHERINE FookS
Other extreme pornography that he possessed included sexualised images of women being tortured.
The prosecution – represented by Crown Advocate Chris Dunford – said there was “no doubt of his high standing in Guernsey”, but that “he abused that trust, particularly by using images of people he knew”.
Judge Fooks and the presiding Jurats concluded that he had betrayed and violated his victims and described the harm they had experienced as “life-changing and life-long”.
“We have found it impossible to find words adequate to reflect the deep depravity of what you have done,” said Judge Fooks.
Le Tocq’s nine-year prison sentence is backdated to start on 22 August 2025, the date he was first remanded in custody.
On his release from prison, he will be on an extended sentence licence for two further years. He must follow notification requirements for five years when released from prison.
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