September 24, 2021 12.00 pm This story is over 31 months old

‘Dangerous’ Spalding paedophile busted as mum finds eight-year-old on video sex call

He found kids on chat sites and used them for his ‘depraved sexual gratification’
Timothy Jackson is now behind bars. | Photo: Cumbria Police

A sex offender from Spalding who boasted police would never catch him has been jailed for more than six years after making an indecent image library of kids.

Timothy Jackson 46, of London Road got six years and 9 months behind bars after communicating with young girls and collecting indecent images of them.

Jackson contacted seven children, aged between eight and 13-years-old, on online chat sites between 2017 and 2018 and encouraged them to send him indecent images.

Police began investigating in 2018 after the mum of an eight-year-old girl in south Cumbria found her on a video call engaging in online sexual activity with Jackson and contacted the police.

Jackson was arrested in Lincolnshire in October 2018. After examining his IT equipment police found evidence he had communicated in a similar way with six other children across the country and had created an image library of all the exploited girls.

Preston Crown Court heard how he pleaded guilty to 13 offences including four counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of sexual communication with a child, three counts of possessing indecent images of children, three counts of possessing indecent video images of children and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

The judge issued him with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, he must sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and his IT equipment will be forfeited and destroyed.

Brett Gerrity for the CPS said: “Timothy Jackson is a dangerous sexual predator who sought out children as young as eight years old on online chat sites in order to sexually exploit them for his own depraved sexual gratification. He showed utter disregard for the damage he would be causing to these young and impressionable children.

“The CPS and Cumbria police worked closely together to build a strong case against him, which we presented to the court outlining the full extent of Jackson’s online campaign of exploitation against his vulnerable victims.

“I hope that all those affected by his depraved actions will be able to move on with their lives and will see that justice has been served as he begins this sentence. Other children are now safe from this very real threat to their childhood.”

Acting Detective Sergeant Rob Hayes, from South Cumbria crime and safeguarding team, said: “This was a complex and lengthy cyber investigation involving multiple partner agencies and police forces across England and Wales. We are grateful for the courage and patience of the initial victim and their family while we sought to identify other victims, and to the further victims and their families who supported our investigation.

“Jackson boasted to one of his victims that the police would never find out about him, and took steps to evade detection while continuing to groom children as young as eight. His stock phrase was ‘I don’t care what you look like or how old you are’.”