Locations
Waterloo Crescent, Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, LE8
Description
For more than three years a woman was subjected to malicious communications online at the hands of her former partner.
After a lengthy and complex investigation, Declan Guess was jailed yesterday (Thursday 12 February) for three-and-a half-years at Leicester Crown Court. He was also made subject to a restraining order, a sexual harm prevention order and will be placed on the sex offender register.
The victim was in a relationship with 24-year-old Guess, but after their relationship ended, he began sharing intimate photographs of her online, taken when she was a teenager.
In October 2022, the victim’s family reported that strangers were visiting their home looking to engage in sexual activity with her.
When the visitors were challenged, they showed posts that had been published on multiple websites advertising the victim as providing sexual services.
After an investigation was launched Guess was identified as being involved in these malicious posts.
When officers seized his mobile phone they discovered a quantity of intimate images of the victim, indecent images of other children as well as images depicting bestiality.
During the investigation over 500 indecent images of children were discovered across his devices.
Once Guess’s devices were examined, new evidence was uncovered relating to his online offending and he was further arrested again in June 2025 for stalking.
In August 2025 a Stalking Protection Order (SPO) was issued by the courts prohibiting 24-year-old Guess from having any form of contact with the victim, whether in person, online or by third party.
Despite the order being in place he breached the conditions in September 2025 when he started following the victim on Instagram, this led to him being arrested and remanded into custody.
He was subsequently charged with stalking, breach of stalking protection order, possession of extreme pornographic images, three counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of distribution of indecent images of children (IIOC).
Earlier this week Guess was due to stand trial but pleaded guilty on the first day to stalking and distribution of IIOC (category A and C).
Investigating officer, PC Kate Butler from the Artemis team, said:
“The impact these offences have had on the victim are immense. Her whole life was turned upside down. “
In her Victim Personal Statement (VPS), the victim, who is now in her 20s, said: “Men started turning up at my family home looking for me and I found out this was because my name, my intimate photos and my address had been put online advertising me for sex. This was frightening and left me feeling very vulnerable.
“The whole situation has caused me so much stress and upset over the years. I just wanted it to stop. What Declan has done to me has had a very severe impact on my self-esteem and mental health. In many ways it has ruined my life.”
PC Butler added:
“While we can’t turn back time for the victim, we hope that Guess’s guilty plea helps her to put those events behind her. We are pleased his admission of guilt has meant that the victim has not been subjected to giving evidence in court.
“This has been an extremely complex investigation, and we thank the victim and her family for their courage in reporting what they had been through and we hope this reassures the wider community that we do take these offences seriously and will use our powers to bring people to justice.
“We also believe there may be other victims of Guess, who for whatever reason have not reported offences to us, we would urge you to get in touch. We have specialist officers who can support and guide you through the process and put you in touch with other support agencies.”