Shropshire child porn video pervert locked up

A Shropshire man who sent indecent photographs and an explicit video to a 17-year-old girl over the internet has been jailed for 18 months.

Andrew David Jones asked the teenager to be his friend on an internet social networking site before sending her the images. She was so disturbed she immediately contacted police.

The video was of a child as young as five involved in sexual activity, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard yesterday.

Jones, 48, had other videos on his laptop at his home in Urban Gardens, Wellington, Telford, the court heard.

At an early hearing at the crown court Jones pleaded guilty to a total of 11 charges, seven counts of distributing indecent images and four of possessing indecent images.

He will have to serve half the sentence before he is released on licence. He was also told he would be on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

Judge Peter Barrie commended the teenager for contacting police after seeing the material.

Mr Andrew Barkley, prosecuting, said the 17-year-old girl was on the MSN Messenger site on the internet at her home in Northern Ireland in April 2009 when Jones asked to be her friend.

He started asking her personal questions about boyfriends and then appeared on her webcam.

She told him he was quite old to be contacting a teenager but Jones said he had internet friends much younger.

He then sent to her "space" photographs, firstly of young teenagers and then a sexually explicit video involving a girl aged about five.

The teenager was so disturbed by what she saw she contacted the police.

Mr Barkley said when officers went to Jones's home in Urban Gardens they found other videos on his laptop.

Only one of all the images was of the more serious category four - the video involving the young girl.

Mr Brendan Reedy, in mitigation, said Jones had no previous convictions for sexual offences but was said to have had a "very troubled past".

Jones had been extremely frank and honest with police and showed a desire to change, Mr Reedy said.

The judge said the starting point for Jones's sentence was three years but said he was giving him credit for his guilty plea and his frankness.

By Sue Austin