Married man and dad from Houghton traded child abuse images online
A married man and father from Houghton-le-spring has been jailed after he was caught trading child abuse images online.
Scott Francis exchanged pictures and movies abusing children he obtained through chats with other paedophiles on social media site Kik for material he was interested in.
The 47-year-old deleted the app from his phone just three minutes before police arrived at his house to arrest him on January 10, 2022.
However, the National Crime Agency, who’s primary function is to combat organised crime and cybercrime, already had evidence on what he had done.
Francis, of Bowes Avenue, Houghton, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing indecent images.
Prosecutor Antonia Adie told Newcastle Crown Court Francis shared four videos which were category A, the worst type, two videos of category B and two category C photographs.
One of the children featured in the material could have been as young as four.
Miss Adie said: “He gave the explanation he used Kik to look at pornographic material and that sometimes indecent images of children were put into the chats he was in.
“The defendant went on to say he then essentially forwarded, traded those within private chats in order to access pornographic material which he was interested in.”
Miss Adie said the police had arrived to arrest Francis at 9.05am and he had deleted the Kik app from his phone just three minutes earlier.
Judge Christopher Prince jailed Francis for two years and said he must sign the sex offenders register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.
