October 2013 Convicted paedophile targeted schoolgirls A prolific paedophile who  persuaded  schoolgirls to take  pictures of themselves before  sharing them with boys at their  schools has been jailed. Ashley Ashington, of High Street,  Neston, randomly targeted thousands of teenagers nationwide by  social media messaging services asking them to take photographs of  themselves for his own sexual gratification whilst he was on bail for  similar offences. But when two girls refused to ‘go  any further’ in the images Ashington  sent them to boys at their schools,  who in turn showed them to classmates. Appearing before Chester Crown  Court on Friday, the 24-year-old was  sentenced to 16 months behind bars  after pleading guilty to possessing  indecent images of children. The court heard how in 2011 Ashington randomly targeted girls as young as 14-years-old  chatting to them on MSN, asking them to undress on webcam before persuading them to send intimate pictures to him. Prosecuting, Peter Hussy said unfortunately many of the girls were  persuaded to send topless and fully  naked photographs of themselves to  Ashington – they had no idea he was  a convicted paedophile.  “He messaged [them] completely  out of the blue,” said Mr Hussey,  describing how two of the girls were  targeted by Ashington, and some of  the girls were even asked if they  would perform sexual acts on him  and sent images indecent images in  reply.”  “[They] were enticed into taking pictures, but when [they] were asked to take more [they] blocked him. Both girls were deeply traumatised to discover the images they had sent found themselves being sent to male students at their school by the defendant.” Ashington was under investigation  by police for making indecent images of children and was on the sex  offenders’ register when he randomly approached the teenagers all  across the country asking for images. He pleaded guilty to the six ‘specimen charges’ during an earlier  hearing. Defending,  Kenneth Grant said  Ashington had not distributed the  images to ‘like-minded’ individuals,  and he had not tried to meet the girls  or engage with them. “He is now socially isolated, no one  wants to talk to him,” said Mr Grant,  describing his client as a ‘social pariah’. “He acknowledges now that he has  an attraction towards young girls. If  he is to not pose a risk to females it  has to start with him acknowledging  he has a problem.” Sentencing Ashington to 16 months  behind bars Judge Roger Dutton  slated him as a ‘wicked’ young man,  who had targeted vulnerable teenagers who had no idea they were  communicating with a convicted  paedophile. “You provided a small number of these images to a number of youngsters in the same school,” said Judge Dutton. “They were not talking to boys there own age, they were talking with a convicted paedophile in  his mid twenties. Vulnerable youngsters need to be protected from the worst aspects of the internet age.” Ashington  will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next 10  years. He was also made subject to a  sexual offences prevention order.