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A PAEDOPHILE who sent explicit images of himself to what he thought was a 14-year-old girl has said he committed the offence because he was lonely.

Jack Goodacre, 28, had admitted possessing indecent images of children in March but proceeded to send sexual messages to an account only months later while he was on bail.

Goodacre had contacted a decoy account in July when he asked if he could chat to the young girl called Melissa, Ipswich Crown Court heard on Friday.

A WhatsApp conversation followed which involved Goodacre sending messages calling her “pretty” and “cute”, before asking her if he would be her first boyfriend.

Abby Robinson, prosecuting, said: “He requested a photo of the decoy’s legs and sent two images of himself.”

One image was of Goodacre naked.

The conversation continued and the defendant told the decoy he would book a hotel room for the two of them.

He then sent her a video of him performing a sex act and an image of a sex toy.

A record of the conversation was kept by a vigilante group which was behind the decoy account, and Goodacre was reported to police who arrested him.

The court heard Goodacre, of Victoria Chase, Colchester, was already on bail when he was messaging the decoy account after admitting three charges of possessing indecent images of children – some of whom were as young as six – in March.

In July he then admitted one charge each of attempting to engage a child in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity, and possession of category B images before being remanded in custody.

Mark Brown, mitigating, said: “He’s never been in any substantial trouble before. He was working in a full-time job and had his own flat.

“He puts his offending down to loneliness.

“He didn’t deal with going to custody very well and he broke down in the magistrates’ court.

“He has had the shock of his life going into custody.”

Sentencing Goodacre, Judge David Pugh said: “I don’t consider it appropriate to suspend this sentence, so the sentence is 16 months of immediate imprisonment.”

Goodacre was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and will be subject to notification requirements for ten years.

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A SUPERMARKET worker downloaded hundreds of sick images including videos of child sex abuse, a court has heard.

James Baines appeared in court for sentencing on Thursday after admitting five counts of possessing indecent images.

Police raided Baines’s address in King Stephen Road last year and seized a Samsung mobile phone which was found to have 255 category A images, 138 category B images, and 63 category C images.

Further searches found a Google Drive folder on Baines’s laptop contained three category A videos and two category C images.

Category A images are classified as being the most serious as they depict penetration of a child whilst they are in pain or distress.

Baines first appeared at the magistrates' court where he admitted three charges of making an indecent photograph of a child and two charges of possessing an indecent photograph of a child.

The case was then transferred to the crown court so a greater sentenced could be passed.

Lucy Sweetland, prosecuting, told Ipswich Crown Court that Baines said to officers he was “not shocked” when they had turned up at his address to execute a search warrant.

Baines had said the images were initially sent to him by other internet users in an online chat group but he “willingly accepted the images and continued to access the chatroom”, Miss Sweetland said.

The court heard how most of the images were of children around the age of six, with one image depicting a child as young as four months.

Miss Sweetland continued: “Another image shows a child distressed and crying during the abuse.”

Frank O’Toole, mitigating, said Baines, 24, had no previous convictions and was working full-time in a supermarket.

He added: “He is not trying to blame anyone else and he is not saying he was bamboozled or taken advantage of because of his age – he doesn’t know why he did it.

“The difficulty he has had from early adulthood was that he lost his hair and became very, very self-conscious because of that – he had decided to go to university but abandoned that idea because he felt his peer group wouldn’t relate to him.

“He self-imposed a personality that removed him from the normal exchanges he would have had with that group - to an extent, he was isolated."

Judge David Pugh sentenced Baines to an eight-month prison term suspended for two years, ordered him to complete 30 days of rehab activity requirements, and imposed a £340 payment for costs.

Baines has also been placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years.

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A man has been jailed for seven years after breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and striking up a "friendship" with a 13-year-old boy.

Luke Tucker, 23, was convicted of a sexual offence in October 2022 and given an SHPO in February 2023, which required him to notify police if he is going to stay at any address where someone under 18 lives or stays and tell them if he is using any aliases.

He also had his access to the internet significantly limited, as well as his ability to store images and videos. 

Just after he was given his SHPO in February, police have discovered that Tucker struck up a "friendship" with a 13-year-old boy, having told him that he was 16.

Tucker gave the boy gifts, stayed at his home address, and had him back to stay at his own address in Eight Acre Lane in Colchester.

While officers were investigating him, they discovered that Tucker had also been messaging a 15-year-old boy and trying to encourage sexual activity.

They searched his house on March 25 this year and discovered several memory cards, USB sticks and hard drives, all in breach of his SHPO.

He was charged with a range of offences and convicted of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, breaching a sexual harm prevention order, and failing to comply with the requirements of the sex offenders register.

He was jailed for a total of seven years at Chelmsford Crown Court on Wednesday.

PC Graeme Braby, who led the investigation, said: "Luke Tucker poses a very real danger to young people.

"The fact he defied the significant constraints on his contact with children, access to the internet, and access to storage devices highlights the lengths he was prepared to go to.

"Many people around the county will not think, or want to think, about the possibility of a registered sex offender living in their community but I hope the fact there is a professional, specially trained, and dedicated set of officers and staff managing the risk they pose will be reassuring."

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A "dangerous" sex offender who abused a string of young victims over a period of 30 years, including a teenage boy from the Humber region, has been jailed for 24 years.

Phillip Johnson, 65, was convicted of 13 counts of sexual assault against children, including attempted buggery, and eight counts of making indecent images of children following a trial in July.

Humberside Police aided Essex Police and Kent Police in securing the charges against "dangerous offender" Johnson after a thorough investigation into his historic sexual offending.

During the course of the investigation, Johnson's devices were seized and around 2,000 indecent images of children were found, including a number of the most serious Category A images of serious child sexual abuse.

He started his campaign of abuse in the late 1980s when he sexually assaulted two young boys, aged between six and eight when the offences took place, at an address in Kent. The sick abuse continued for a period of two years.

The victims stated that the abuse stopped in the late 1980s when Johnson left their lives for a period of time, but resumed when they reached 15/16 years of age.

In 2008, Johnson moved to the Humber region, where he befriended and groomed a teenage boy before later sexually assaulting him.

Struggling with what had happened, the victim did not tell anyone about the abuse for a decade, before reporting the matter to the police.

Johnson then moved to the Colchester area of Essex where he groomed and sexually assaulted two males, one of whom kept the abuse secret for a year until a disclosure from the second boy encouraged him to come forward and speak to police.

Following a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Johnson was convicted of all counts on Thursday, July 27. On Wednesday, August 30, he was sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment.

The judge deemed him to be a dangerous offender and ordered him to serve a minimum of 15 years before he can be considered for parole.

He will be subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Speaking after sentencing, investigating officer Detective Constable Lucy Percival, from Colchester CID, said: “I want to praise the courage shown by the victims in this case, who experienced a traumatic childhood due to Phillip Johnson’s actions towards them.

“The victims, now men, showed huge bravery and determination to see this process through to seek a degree of justice for what happened to them.

“Most importantly, each of their sentiments separately was to prevent this from happening to anyone else.

“There is no doubt, Johnson is a dangerous individual who showed a concerted effort to identify vulnerable children, groom them and then ultimately to sexually abuse them.

“His actions were horrific, but I am pleased he has now been held accountable for those actions which in turn will hopefully allow the victims to move forward.”

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A convicted paedophile has admitted 21 further offences of sexually abusing young boys while overseas.

Christopher Behn, 68, from Colchester, is already serving a nine-year prison term for abusing 11 children in Myanmar in 2016.

The new charges related to the abuse of boys, aged six to 11, in Vietnam.

Behn, who police described as a "committed and prolific transnational child sex offender", is due to be sentenced next month.

The retired engineer appeared in Chelmsford Crown Court by video link from HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight.

Investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol and Dutch authorities identified Behn as a member of a Europe-wide network who travelled together to abuse children across the globe.

He was arrested at Gatwick Airport in February 2020, after investigators identified him as appearing in images with another member of the network - a Dutch national who was convicted in the Netherlands.

Behn was detained by officers before he could board a flight to Vietnam.

Photographs taken by Behn, showing him abusing children, were recovered from encrypted electronic devices.

His travel history showed he had visited Vietnam 18 times since 2006, along with trips to Thailand, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, India, and Myanmar, the NCA said.

He and the Dutch national had also written diaries that described in graphic detail the abuse committed by the pair on many of these trips.

In June this year, Behn was further charged with 23 counts of sexually assaulting a child and causing a child to engage in sexual activity between 2008 and 2018.

He denied two of the charges, but will not face trial on those counts.

Phil Eccles, NCA operations manager, said Behn was "a committed and prolific transnational child sex offender, who dedicated years of his life to this criminal network".

"Behn and his like-minded friends conducted their offending in remote parts of the world and conspired together via encrypted chats in the hope of hiding their horrific offending from law enforcement," he said.

The agency said it had identified a further five men based in the UK believed to have links to the network and investigations were ongoing in a number of countries across Europe.

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A RAPE victim has spoken out after her attacker was convicted of rape by a crown court judge.

The woman, whose identity is protected, explained how she awoke suddenly to find Shaun Western raping her.

The victim had been on a night out with friends in Colchester in September 2018 and returned to her flat at the end of the night, but when she woke up to find she was being raped by Western, 24, who fled the flat when he had been discovered.

In a police interview, Western claimed the sex was consensual but the jury at Chelmsford Crown Court did not believe him and on Tuesday he was sentenced to six years and six months imprisonment.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said the attack had impacted hugely on “every aspect” of her life.

She said: “Since this happened, I started to suffer from night terrors.

“I never used to have issues sleeping, now when I have a night terror I start to drift off to sleep, I will jolt awake with the memory of him on top of me.

“It would make me feel breathless and panicky.”

The victim also said she has since been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, with her ability to work also majorly affected.

Officer in the case Detective Sergeant Danielle Markoutsis praised the victim for her courage.

He said: “[The victim’s strength character throughout this process has been an inspiration.

“While delays in bringing this case to trial were outside of our control, the verdict and sentence serve as a stark reminder of our clear determination to bring sex offenders to justice.

“The early advice process we have in place [with the Crown Prosecution Service] seeks to involve a lawyer in the very early stages of an investigation to agree a joint action plan with the officer in charge.

“This is helping to improve the timeliness of our investigations, leading to more solved outcomes and has now been recognised by the college of policing, which has included this as evidence of good practice for other forces to follow.”

Western will be subject to an indefinite restraining order and will remain on the sex offender's register for life.

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A 28-year-old registered sex offender from Colchester who breached the terms of a suspended prison sentence order a few weeks after it was made has been jailed for 26 months.

Michael Vinson was given a two year jail term suspended for two years on June 16 last year after he had conversations over a period of a month with an undercover police officer who said he had two nieces aged seven and ten.

During their communication on the Kik messaging and chat app Vinson had said what he was interested in doing sexually and had asked for pictures and for the children’s underwear, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

However, the court heard there was no evidence Vinson had got on a train or bought a train ticket to meet the fictitious girls and he had also made an excuse to the undercover officer about why he couldn’t go to meet them.

Vinson, of Axial Close, Colchester, pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court last year to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence in 2021.

He also admitted possessing two extreme pornographic still images and four videos depicting a person performing sex acts with an animal.

He was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to 200 hours unpaid work.

He was also given a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to take part in a sex offenders’ treatment programme.

He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for ten years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

On Thursday (April 20) Vinson admitted breaching the suspended sentence order by breaching the sexual harm prevention order and the sex offenders’ registration requirements by staying with a couple and their five-year-old daughter in Yorkshire between July 20-23 last year without telling them he was a registered sex offender and failing to notify the police of a change in his address after he’d been there for more than 12 hours.

Richard Kelly for Vinson said his client had become a social pariah since details of his court appearance last year were published last year and his mental health had deteriorated.

He said the impact of a prison sentence on Vinson would be significant.

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A REGISTERED sex offender who was found to be living with a two-year-old child has been put behind bars.

Jason Bell, of Firs Chase, West Mersea, was being monitored by the police due to a sexual harm prevention order imposed upon him.

Essex Police said Bell posed a “serious risk to young girls” and the order was in place to protect vulnerable people.

Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard the sex offender was banned from owning internet enabled devices unless monitored by Essex Police and had to notify officers of changes to his address.

But the 33-year-old tried to evade detection by residing at a new property which officers were unaware of.

In November, Essex Police received a call informing constables of Bell’s whereabouts and that there was a two-year-old child at the address.

An officer was deployed to the scene and arrested Bell after spotting him returning to the property.

Appearing before the magistrates, Bell was sentenced to one years imprisonment.

Investigating Officer Harry Callaghan said the defendant “genuinely believed” he wouldn’t go to prison.

“I acted quickly on the intelligence received and was able to attend the address," he said.

“Bell had unfortunately run away from the address after seeing the police but after a short wait around the corner, I was able to witness him return to the address I knew he shouldn’t have been at.

“Bell thought that he could continue to breach the order which we’d placed upon him to keep vulnerable people safe. He genuinely believed that he wouldn’t go to prison.

“I made sure that the courts were fully briefed about the risk he presented and am pleased that he received a custodial sentence.”

Mr Callaghan, is part of the team which manages sexual offenders and violent offenders.

He continued: “Essex Police is constantly looking at the measures we can use to keep everyone, especially young women and girls safe.

“Anyone on the Sex Offenders Register and who poses a risk will be monitored by my team.”

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A SEXUAL predator who groped and kissed children walking through Colchester’s city centre has been locked up.

Stefan Pritchard’s disturbing attacks saw four girls, aged between 11 and 14, targeted on different dates between July 2021 and June this year.

A 14-year-old girl whose bottom was groped from underneath her skirt by Pritchard, 32, said she now suffers panic attacks due to flashbacks.

Judge David Turner KC told Chelmsford Crown Court he feared the sexually-charged incidents were a “manifestation of his inner loneliness and turmoil”. 

 Pritchard, of Fingringhoe Road, Colchester, admitted four counts of sexual assault on a child, two counts of assaulting an emergency worker and one count of sexual assault of a child aged under 13.

He has been jailed for two years and nine months.

Emma Kutner, prosecuting, said Pritchard’s offending started when he reached up the 14-year-old’s skirt in Queen Street and grabbed her bottom in July 2021.

He then stroked the hair of an 11-year-old and told her she was beautiful as she walked with her mother in September last year. 

The following month he hugged a 14-year-old girl from behind and kissed her on the neck, cheek and lips before touching her breast.

Ms Kutner said: “Her friend said she was in shock and was crying. She said she felt anxious and didn’t want to go out.”

Another girl, 13, had her breasts and thighs stroked in North Hill by Pritchard in November 2021.

The sex attacker’s final offence, in June of this year, saw him ask a girl wearing school uniform if she wanted to spend some alone time together, before grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her closer. 

 The court heard Pritchard lives with a mild disorder impacting his intellectual development, but Judge Turner said: “It is not of an order which could possibly excuse this sort of behaviour.”

He added: “These were unprovoked, gratuitous public gropings and sexual assaults of young women.”

Donal Lawler, mitigating, said: “Given everything he was born into he stood little chance; he is an immensely damaged individual.”

Pritchard was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years. 

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A TRAINEE teacher Googled if it was natural for him to be attracted to 14-year-old girls, a court heard.

Hector Moyes, 28, admitted he had been a bit silly to police officers after they found ten videos of the most serious Category A, involving the sexual abuse of children, on two electronic devices.

Ipswich Crown Court heard on Tuesday how officers examined an Apple MacBook and an iPhone during a search warrant executed at Moyes address in Fingringhoe Road, Langenhoe, Colchester in June 2021.

But Adam Squibbs, mitigating, told the court his clients offences between January and February of last year came during a mental breakdown.

Having seized the two electronic devices last June, police officers arrested Moyes after finding he had used the internet to access indecent images of children.

A number of indecent images depicting girls as young as ten-years-old being sexually abused were found on the MacBook.

On the iPhone, officers discovered vast swathes of pornography had been downloaded on messenger platform Kik.

Examinations of Moyes internet history showed he had Googled if it was natural for a man in his twenties to be attracted to 14-year-old girls.

Matthew Bagnall, prosecuting, highlighted this was during a period where the defendant was a trainee music teacher at a secondary school.

But Mr Squibbs said Moyes, who is a church organist, had a mental breakdown which resulted in a brief and destructive pornography addiction.

He said his client entered a mental health crisis following the death of his grandmother and the revelation his father had vascular dementia.

Sentencing him to six months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, Judge Emma Peters said most people dont turn to the misery of child pornography when having a breakdown.

She added by fuelling the trade of cruel and disgusting abuse of children, Moyes had lost his teaching career.

Moyes admitted possession of ten Category A videos, as well as four images and one video at Category B and eight images and three videos at Category C.

He was ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work, given a 40 day rehabilitation requirement and a sexual harm prevention order for seven years. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for the same period.

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A PAEDOPHILE has been locked up after being caught with more than 1,000 indecent images of children.

Dominic Osborne Robinson was caught with more than 1,000 images of children being abused.

Police raided the 34-year-old's home after getting a tip-off he had been uploading indecent images and talking about abusing youngsters online.

Officers seized three phones, a laptop and a tablet and a number of cameras.

They contained a mix of category A, B and C images as well as sexualised communications with children.

He was arrested the same day at his workplace in Portsmouth on January 28, 2019.

Appearing at Portsmouth Crown Court on Tuesday he was charged with three counts of making indecent photographs of children, two counts of attempting sexual communication with a child and one count of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence believing it would be committed.

He previously pleaded guilty.

Robinson, of Midway Road, Colchester, was jailed for 20 months in prison after being found in possession of indecent images of children.

He must register as a sex offender for ten years and will also be given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years.

DC Stephen Hill of Hampshire Constabulary's Internet Child Abuse Team said "Behind every indecent image of a child is a vulnerable victim and these crimes are among the most appalling that we investigate.

"Robinson is a habitual collector of indecent images that include category A, the most serious kind, for his own sexual gratification.

"He was found to not only have been in possession of such images but also actively sought to communicate with children.

"Tackling online viewing of indecent images and safeguarding children online is a priority for police and we will do everything in our power to bring offenders to justice."

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A CONVICTED sex offender previously jailed for offering a vulnerable 15-year-old cash to have sex with him on Facebook has been sent back to prison.

Four years ago, Aaron Whitman was given a 16-month jail term after propositioning the girl online.

He found out details of her social care records via his then role at Essex County Council.

As well as his prison sentence, for inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and misconduct in a public office, Whitman, now 31, was made subject to certain notification requirements and a ten-year sexual harm prevention order limiting the contact he could have with youngsters.

However, last year he had unsupervised contact with a girl on numerous occasions whose mother did not initially know about his conviction, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.

Whitman’s behaviour was not inappropriate towards her but he was still banned from being with her.

He also opened a new bank account and spent approximately 30 nights away from his home address in Pirie Road, West Bergholt, without telling officers.

He admitted breach of sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with notification requirements.

Judge Timothy Walker jailed him for a year at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

“You would have been told any breach of this order would likely result in your return to custody,” he said.

Barry Gilbert, mitigating, had called for leniency saying no child at come to harm on this occasion.

He said: “However unpleasant this all is, in four years there has been one breach.

“There has never been any danger for a child which is what these orders are put in place for.”

Whitman’s sexual harm prevention order will now run for another ten years.

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A predatory paedophiles sickening campaign of sexual abuse of a vulnerable child was revealed after the victims mother caught them in bed together.

Toby Lees, 29, of Garland Road, Colchester, admitted a string of sexual offences including rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault between 2011 and 2018.

At Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday (May 25), Lees was sentenced during a hearing attended by the young boys family.

At around 9.30pm on March 11, the victims mother caught her son and the defendant in bed together.

Their lower halves were covered and she saw the defendant quickly move his hand, causing her to become suspicious.

After coming clean to his sickening crimes, Lees sent a text to his mother, despite initially denying everything.

The text read: Mum, I would never try and excuse what has happened.

I know it was wrong and accept the consequences of my actions.

I am not passing blame, I know I am an adult that should never have let it happen. When can I expect the police to turn up?

He was arrested by police and his phone was seized where it was discovered he searched various indecent terms online.

In his police interview on March 13, he made a 79-page confession of sexual abuse against the young victim spanning several years.

As the defendant told police about his gross catalogue of abuse, Lee claimed he did not know why he allowed it to continue and felt physically sick after it happened.

He said was it was a 50/50 relationship but told officers he was not putting the blame on his victim as he was a child.

Lees claimed there was never any force and that it was never devised or planned it but that it just happened.

In a police statement, the victims mother told officers her son was vulnerable, lacking in confidence and is overall an anxious boy.

She explained how he was not someone that trusts people easily and finds it hard to build relationships.

During his interview, the victim told police about the abuse starting when he was was prepubescent.

He could not remember how or why it started but was asked what kind of things would happen.

The victim went on to describe on one occasion that Lee attempted to penetrate his anus but it was too painful and they stopped.

Prosecuting lawyer Carolyn Gardiner told the court how the abuse completely changed the victim.

The victim is not the same.

He has been assessed for counselling and is on the waiting list but he has been told that it could be five months before he is seen.

Mitigating on the defendant's behalf, Nneka Akudolu said: He had a good sense and courage to admit to these very serious offences.

"These offences lead to a lengthy custodial sentence and he acknowledges and accepts that is what to follow.

Having read his pre-sentence report, there is a glimmer of hope for rehabilitation without the need for a dangerous determination.

He had not so much an interview as a 79-page confession, he had not held back at all when questioned by police.

The offences he has pleaded guilty to have been formed around his own confessions.

"Some in his position facing similar charges do not always do what is clearly right."

Ms Akudolu added that her client's own child would suffer as a result of her father being punished.

"He wants to make it clear he pleaded guilty because he is guilty and because he is sorry, not only sorry for what he has done to his victim but also the distress he has caused to the family," she continued.

There are no excuses for his behaviour, he is responsible for his action and he described getting caught as almost a relief as he had to confront the depraved truth of what he was doing.

It is a very sad day for everyone concerned, there is no one in the public gallery in support of him and he only has himself to blame.

Judge Turner turned to the defendant in the dock, who looked at the floor throughout the sentencing, calling his campaign of abuse a depraved course of conduct.

Sentencing Lees, the judge told him: You are 30 years of age, you are father of a four-year-old daughter, you perpetrated across seven years a series of gross sexual offences against a young boy.

You were discovered in fairly dramatic circumstances, you were caught red-handed.

You knew his age, you knew the danger, you knew the consequences and you still participated in disgraceful conduct.

"It was exploitative, it was opportunistic and deliberate.

It was a horrific course of conduct which has cast a shadow over much of his life.

You should have known better than to do what you did.

Lees was sentenced to 14 years in prison after admitting to a charge of rape, attempted rape, four counts of sexual assault and seven counts of causing or inciting sexual activity with a child.

A sexual harm prevention order was also put in place and Lees was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

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Connor Benjamin Allen-Howe targeted boys aged between 12 and 15.

A "devious and manipulative" paedophile from Colchester who used the internet to corrupt and abuse up to 20 children has been told his eight-year jail term was not a day too long.

Connor Benjamin Allen-Howe, 22, of Shakespeare Road, Colchester, was aged between 16 and 18 when he posed as a teenage girl online to persuade a host of boys, aged between 12 and 15, to perform sex acts on camera.

He also sometimes posed as a multi-millionaire offering "gifts" to witness sex acts performed by his under-age victims.

Sick Allen-Howe went even further, persuading some of his victims to become part of his "army of deviants" by sexually abusing their own younger siblings, and even pets, whilst he watched remotely.

They included causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography and making indecent photographs of children.

At London's Appeal Court today, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb heard Allen-Howe plead for a shorter sentence, claiming he was treated too harshly.

The judge, sitting with Lady Justice Hallett and Judge Martin Picton, said Allen-Howe had "catfished" his victims - posing as someone he was not online.

Lawyers for Allen-Howe argued that he had been given a sentence appropriate for an adult and his own tender years ought to have resulted in a shorter term.

But the appeal judge said that "catfishing has the potential to result in serious psychological harm to victims."

"Such behaviour has to be severely punished," she added.

"Twenty victims were abused by, or at the behest of, Allen-Howe," she went on, branding him "devious and manipulative."

"We cannot conclude that, with the breadth and length of the offending in this case, the sentence was wrong in principle.