Liam Waldron 29

Description

A pervert who shared sick images of himself sexually assaulting a child has been locked up.

Liam Waldron appeared before Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced for a string of offences including sharing depraved sexually explicit images of children and possession of extreme porn involving a dog.

The court heard the 29-year-old was snared after West Mercia Police found evidence Waldron had been contacting a suspect in their force area and alerted Cleveland Police. Officers attended Waldron's Redcar home and found a number of devices with the depraved images on and also evidence of correspondence between the two. Police also discovered a photograph, which had been shared, of Waldron assaulting a child.

Philip Morley, prosecuting, said the defendant admitted he had been sharing and distributing indecent images on platforms such as Whatsapp and added: "He had been doing it regularly for some years and normally under the influence of drink and drugs."

Waldron, of Ryehills Close, pleaded guilty to a string of offences including the sexual assault of a child under the age of 13, taking indecent photographs of a child, distributing indecent photographs of a child, making indecent images and possession of an extreme pornographic image involving sexual activity with a dog.

The defendant also agreed to a number of other matters being taken into account, dating from June 2022 to June 2024, including possession of 110 category A images of children, possession of 79 category B images of children, possession of 33 category C images of children and 12 images of extreme pornography.

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said: "As in all cases like this there is no rational explanation for this behaviour." He said in Waldron's case there was a combination of drug misuse and pressure from a third party to become involved.

He said: "There is nothing that can be sensibly said to try to mitigate his actions. The best mitigation is that he entered a guilty plea."

Judge Joanne Kidd said Waldron had shared images and was in discussions with other paedophiles and they shared some of "the most depraved ideas, desires and fantasies."

Judge Kidd said she took the view that this was fantasy and nothing more, but said the images were particularly depraved and showed "children being subjects of the most heinous violations".

Waldron was jailed for a total of 42 months and placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.