May 27, 2016 3.57 pm This story is over 93 months old

“Sick” Lincolnshire paedophile jailed for sharing images of toddlers being raped

He distributed images of children as young as two being raped and sexually abused

A paedophile who distributed images of children as young as two being raped and sexually abused has been jailed for three and a half years at Lincoln Crown Court.

Jamie Lee Tye, 28, denied he was responsible for downloading the material onto computer equipment and then allowing others to access it via the GigaTribe file sharing site.

But following a trial in front of a jury he was found guilty of distributing indecent images of a child together with seven charges of making an indecent image of a child and six charges of possessing a total of 15,252 indecent images of a child.

He was cleared of two further charges of making an indecent image at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday, May 27.

The charges related to the period between February 2009 and August 2012.

Tye, of Normanby Road, Louth, but formerly living in Montgomery Terrace, North Coates, denied all 16 charges.

He told the jury that he had no interest in child pornography and blamed friends for downloading the material after he allowed them access to his computer, tablet and mobile phone.

Tye, who has worked as a driver and valeter for a company in Grimsby for the last nine years, was given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order which bans him from having unsupervised contact with any child under 16 and from using the internet to contact any child under 16.

Convicted paedophile Jamie Lee Tye

Convicted paedophile Jamie Lee Tye

Recorder Graham Huston, passing sentence, told Tye: “You were convicted by the jury on the most overwhelming evidence.

“The most serious of these offences is distributing indecent images of a child. In doing so you were not only increasing the circulation of these vile images but you were encouraging others to do so.

“It seems to me that you enthusiastically entered into the sharing of material.

“A great number of these images showed very young children being raped and otherwise abused. One can only imagine what those children went through so that sick paedophiles like you could masturbate to the images.”

Grace Hale, prosecuting, said that that police found over 9,000 indecent images on a tablet recovered from Tye’s home.

More illegal images were found on two computers and a mobile phone including over 1,000 films.

Officers also found a collection of computer disks containing child porn next to Tye’s bed.

She said Tye would be the “unluckiest man on earth” if it was his friends who had accessed the large volume of illegal material after he had allowed them to use his phone and computers.

Mrs Hale said that Tye made some of the illegal images available to others on GigaTribe and they were accessed by over 100 people.

Zarif Khan, in mitigation, said that Tye looks after his parents who are both in poor health.

He added that there was no suggestion that Tye made any financial gain from the offences.

DC Nicky Linn, of the Internet Child Abuse Team, said: “We found 2,428 category A indecent images and videos, which depict the worst kind of abuse of children, and thousands more images and videos  classed as category B and C – a total of 15,252 – on a number of devices andmedia seized. The making of these images dated back to 2004.

“Tye expected the Court to believe that he had absolutely no knowledge of the images or chat recovered and that these had been put on his devices by his friends. The jury saw through his lies and found him guilty of these offences.

“Anyone who views, distributes or creates images of children should be looking over their shoulder or expecting a knock on the door, our team is extremely proactive, they could be next. Every image is an innocent child who is being abused.”