Ashley Bourton 25

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A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for eight years after threatening to kill himself if a 14-year-old girl did not send him naked photographs.

Ashley Bourton was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (February 23) for three counts of attempted sexual communication with a child, five counts of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, two counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual communication and one count of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

The 25-year-old was caught by four different online child activist groups who pretended to be young girls to catch predators.

They were: Justice For Kids, No More Secrets, Innocence From The Shadows, and Secrets and Lies Confronted.

Bourton was caught messaging the fake accounts videos of him masturbating, believe the accounts to be 13 to 15 year old girls.

Judge Michael Gledhill sentenced Bourton, of Wigod Way, Wallingford, to five years imprisonment plus a three year extended term due to the defendant being classified as a ‘dangerous’ and ‘high risk offender’.

Opening the case, prosecutor Steven Attridge said Bourton had been caught messaging the fake accounts on various platforms, including online chatrooms and WhatsApp in May last year.

He messaged ‘Lucy Jane’, who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, on Facebook using his account ‘Playboy25’, asking her for naked photos.

 Another account, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl named ‘Carrie’, was run by an East Midlands Specialist Unit and Bourton was caught messaging her saying: “If I was you dad and you saw me d*** would you ask to use it?”

An account run by ‘Secrets and Lies Confronted’, pretending to be a 14-year-old girl called Freya, caught Bourton threatening to commit suicide if the teenager did not send naked photographs.

Upon arrest on May 22, officers also found search terms on the defendant’s phone indicating he had been looking for indecent images of children.

Bourton was previously jailed in April 2021 for sexually assaulting a six-year-old old and several other child sex offences.

Defending Bourton, barrister Gordana Austen said the 25-year-old suffered from physical and mental difficulties. 

 She said he is on the autism spectrum and suffers from anxiety and depression.

“He lives a very isolated and lonely life,” she said. “He says he tries to date and communicate with adults but they ignore him which is why he finds it easier to communicate with children.”

Sentencing Bourton, Judge Gledhill said: “You are a very high risk offender according to both the probation officer and your own psychiatrist and I’ve come to the conclusion that you are, what is known in law, as dangerous.”