Shropshire Star

Jailed: Shropshire paedophile, 24, exchanged pictures and sexual messages with children

A Shropshire man who exchanged indecent pictures and sexual messages with children as young as 13 has been jailed for three years.

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Matthew Evans, 24, of Bicton Heath, near Shrewsbury, admitted 15 charges, including causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and distributing indecent images.

The case was delayed as Evans received treatment in the cells when he collapsed in the dock at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday.

Judge Jim Tindal admitted he had considered a heavier sentence of five years, but took into consideration Evans's guilty plea and other mitigating factors, including mental health problems and his age.

He said: "You tricked eight different children aged between 13 and 17 into sending you pictures of themselves and then you distributed them.

"This was a cynical abuse of their trust, either for your gratification, or for others, or both.

"The harm you caused was not only to the children you abused, but by holding over their heads that you would release them, that added salt to wounds.

"You started to make plans to meet, but none of the plans came to anything.

"An experienced probation officer indicated you prove a high risk to children.

"They show someone who was prepared to exploit and abuse children for their own gratification, and then to partly blackmail those children.

"I am troubled about these offences as you are so young. You have a very distorted view on children.

"You are a very troubled young man. This was a serious abuse and exploitation of those children. Everyone needs to understand that however compelling mitigation is this sort of behaviour is immensely serious."

The offences took place in Gobowen between 2012 and 2014.

Evans sent a total of 40,000 messages to a number of children under 16 and contacted them via the website tagged.com, WhatsApp and Badoo. Samantha Powis, prosecuting, said: "On police interview he said he knew what he was doing was wrong and didn't know why he did it. He said it was stupid.

"There was a degree of circulation of the images amongst victims. One of victims begged him not to but he did it nonetheless."

Brendan Reedy, defending said: "He said he committed the offences in drink.

"The offences were committed after coming out of a significant two-and-a-half year relationship and from that ending he hit a downward spiral."

Evans was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for six years.

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