Locations
Speechley Drove, Borough Fen, Peterborough, PE6
Description
A man has been jailed after creating thousands of indecent images of children, some of which were shared in WhatsApp groups with more than 20,000 members.
Andrew Moseley first became a person of interest for Derbyshire police following a referral from the National Crime Agency (NCA), whereby he had been communicating with a 14-year-old boy who had uploaded explicit images of himself to the internet.
Moseley, of Speechley Drove (correct spelling), Borough Fen, Peterborough was arrested in July 2023 at his former address in Church Gresley and his devices were seized.
During an examination of his devices, it was found that he had been participating in 36 WhatsApp group chats about the sexual abuse of children.
These chats discussed the sharing of indecent images and videos of children.
The chats had a total of 24,042 members from 141 countries across the world.
Some of the material on Moseley’s devices dated back to 2009, showing that he had been involved in discussing and inciting the sexual abuse of children and making and sharing images of abuse for 15 years.
Moseley was charged in March this year, and admitted the following offences:
- Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity
- Making indecent images of children - Category A
- Making indecent images of children - Category B
- Making indecent images of category children – Category C
- Distributing a Category A indecent image of a child (x2 counts)
- Distributing three Category B images of children
- Conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children
- Possessing indecent images of children
- Possessing prohibited images of children
- Possessing images of extreme pornography
- Attempting to incite the sexual exploitation of a child
- Conspiracy to incite a child under 16 to engage in a penetrative sexual activity
The 60-year-old appeared at Derby Crown Court on Friday 27 February, and was handed a 15-year jail term by a judge. This sentence was reduced to a period of 10 years, in respect of Moseley’s guilty plea.
Moseley was also given a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a Deprivation of Rights Order in respect of the devices that were seized from him during the police investigation.
Detective Constable, Heather Rogers, officer in the case said:
“This was an extremely complex case that it would have been impossible to unravel without the referral from the NCA and the painstaking work of our digital forensics’ colleagues, who extracted and downloaded the material from Moseley’s devices.
“The sheer magnitude and reach of Moseley’s offending – which spanned over 140 countries – is horrifying.
“While this sentence cannot undo the lasting harm that has been caused to the many child victims in this case, it does mean a massive disruption in the sharing of child sexual abuse material across Moseley’s worldwide network.
“The prevention of further such material being shared and Moseley being put safely behind bars, makes our online spaces that little bit safer.”
Detective Chief Inspector, Jim Carver, who is Derbyshire’s force lead for Child Sexual Exploitation added:
“Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is a far-reaching crime that can have a life-long impact on victims and their families.
“No child should have to suffer in this way, and we take all reports of this nature extremely seriously.
“We are committed to investigating reports of CSE and will do all that we can to root out offenders and bring them to justice.
“To anyone engaging in this type of criminal activity – I hope that the details of this case prove that it is only a matter of time until you are caught.”