Locations
Bowes Avenue, Hetton-Le-Hole, Houghton Le Spring, County Durham, DH5
Description
A paedophile "traded" sickening child abuse images to other perverts online and deleted a messenger app minutes before his arrest.
Nissan worker Scott Francis shared category A, B and C videos and pictures to other paedophiles online and was caught after a National Crime Agency investigation. The 47-year-old had been distributing material which depicted children as young as four-years-old being abused.
On Thursday, Francis, of Bowes Avenue, Easington Lane, Houghton-le-Spring, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court to be sentenced for three counts of distributing indecent images of children. He had pleaded guilty to the offences.
The court heard that on November 16 2021, Northumbria Police received a referral from the National Crime Agency which suggested indecent images of children had been uploaded to the internet via the Kik messenger app. The account which had uploaded the images was linked to Francis.
Antonia Adie, prosecuting, said: "Police went to the defendant's home in January 2022 and his iPhone was seized and he was arrested. He was interviewed and made admissions. He said he used the account to look at pornography and that sometimes indecent images were put into chats he was in.
"He said he'd received images and traded them in order to access pornography he was interested in." Ms Adie said that the Kik app he had been using had been uninstalled minutes before he was arrested and that it was an attempt to "conceal his offending".
In total, Francis shared four category A images, two category B images and two category C images. Videos were also included, the court heard.
Helen Towers, defending, said Francis has a son and that he was "deeply ashamed" of his actions. She said: "He has no previous convictions and worked for 12 years at Nissan." She added he had shown "remorse" and that prison would have a "significant impact on those reliant on him".
Judge Prince jailed Francis for two years. He will also be on the sex offender register for 10 years and a 10 year sexual harm prevention order was also imposed.