Locations
Abercynon, Cynon Valley, CF45
Description
A 21-YEAR-OLD man from Abercynon has appeared before Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Monday, June 13 to be sentenced for a series of sexual offences against children.
Krzystof Abramowicz has pleaded guilty to 25 counts of sexual offences against 25 different child victims as young as nine years old. He has been sentenced to four years and eight months in custody.
Detectives from Tarian, the regional organised crime unit for southern Wales, first identified Abramowicz was targeting children online in the Gwent and south Wales areas. Abramowicz created sophisticated fake profiles to pose as a 13 year-old girl, enticing children to commit sexual acts using popular mobile phone applications such as snapchat and Instagram.
Officers from Tarians Under-Cover On-line team established Abramowiczs identity and that he was regularly travelling between south Wales and Poland.
Detective Inspector David Bancroft of Tarian said: This case demonstrates the importance of the strong working partnership between Tarian and South Wales Police and our priority in protecting children.
Tarian passed the information to the South Wales Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT) who immediately arrested the defendant at his place of work.
A complex and thorough investigation conducted by detectives from the POLIT led to an early guilty plea and todays sentence.
Detective Inspector Bancroft added: Tackling online child sexual exploitation is a national priority for law enforcement and we are pursuing more offenders and safeguarding more children than ever before. All children identified were provided with support from specially trained officers from South Wales Police.
The police alone cannot stop the demand for child abuse images and more needs to be done to prevent abuse in the first place.
Further work is needed to reduce the availability of imagery, provide support to people with an inappropriate sexual interest in children and to raise levels of understanding around the risks of taking and distributing indecent images of children.