Locations
Birch Road, Darlington, County Durham, DL1
Description
A PAEDOPHILE operating online has been jailed after being caught by an undercover police officer working for Darlington Police.
Daniel Bateman unwittingly struck up a conversation with the undercover officer, who was posing as another online paedophile on the social messaging app, KIK.
Bateman then sent the decoy an indecent image of a child, before suggesting the pair meet up to have sex with children.
The 30-year-old of Birch Road, Darlington, was arrested and charged with distributing an indecent image and arranging or facilitating a child sex offence.
He admitted distributing an indecent image but denied the second charge.
A jury sitting at Teesside Crown Court, however, found Bateman guilty and he was jailed for three years last Monday (January 24).
He was also made subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will remain on the Sex Offenders Register for an indefinite period.
Detective Constable Pat Finn, of Durham Constabulary, led the investigation. He said: Bateman is a dangerous and deceitful individual, who sought to realise his own depraved fantasies by seeking to meet up with other like-minded paedophiles to sexually abuse children.
He has shown no remorse throughout the trial, and he is now behind bars where he belongs, and is no longer in a position where he continues to pose a serious sexual risk to children.
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