Locations
Long Eaton, Derbyshire, NG10
Description
A former firefighter who paid children to send him explicit images online has been jailed.
Robert Stevenson would trawl social media sites and message women online, offering them money to send naked pictures. However, many of the victims were young girls.
He even sent a photo of himself in uniform to one of his victims, claiming to be 19.
The matters came to light when one of Stevenson’s victims, a 15-year-old girl, told police that he had threatened to post an explicit picture of her online.
He had spoken to the girl via direct messages on Instagram asking her if she wanted to make £100. The conversation later moved to Snapchat with Stevenson telling her he was 17 after she told him she was 17.
Stevenson was arrested and his devices were seized. Checks on them found he had been messaging a number of girls, and had paid several of them to send him photos and videos of themselves. Analysis of his bank account found numerous payments he had made to several girls.
The 31-year-old, previously of Long Eaton, was later charged with a number of offences including cause/incite the sexual exploitation of a child aged 13 to 17; cause/incite a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity and making an indecent photo/pseudo photograph of a child.
He denied the charges but was found guilty after a trial at Derby Crown Court. He appeared at the same court for sentencing on 27 September when he was jailed for seven years. He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on the sex offenders register.