CHRISTINE CALLAGHAN FROM BEXHILL-ON-SEA JAILED FOR CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND LIVE-STREAMING IN EAST SUSSEX

In a disturbing case that has shocked the community of Bexhill-on-Sea and the wider East Sussex area, Christine Callaghan, aged 33, has been sentenced to six years in prison following her involvement in a heinous series of child sexual abuse crimes. The case came to light after a detailed investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which uncovered a disturbing pattern of online abuse and exploitation involving Callaghan and her accomplice, Dean Petley.

Callaghan’s criminal activities spanned over a period of three years, during which she engaged in live-streaming sexual abuse of a young girl. She was paid a total of £2,285 by Petley, a 30-year-old man from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, to perform these acts. The abuse was carried out via Skype, a popular video communication platform, where Callaghan transmitted harrowing footage of herself engaging in sexual acts with the young victim. These recordings were not only shared with Petley but also documented on encrypted hard drives, which later provided crucial evidence for the authorities.

At Isleworth Crown Court, Callaghan pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including distributing the most serious category A live-streamed videos of child sexual abuse, distributing a category B indecent live-streamed video, and causing or inciting a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity. Her actions were deemed extremely serious, leading to her being sentenced to six years behind bars. Additionally, she was issued a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely, ensuring ongoing monitoring of her activities.

The investigation into Callaghan’s crimes was part of a broader crackdown on online child exploitation. The NCA’s efforts were initially sparked by the arrest and conviction of Jodie Little, a woman from Huddersfield, who was sentenced to 12 years and four months in August for her own online child abuse offenses. Little had been operating from her home in northern Cyprus under aliases such as ‘Devil*****666’ and ‘DomTaboo****,’ and her activities included sexually abusing children and sharing graphic files with others, including Petley.

Further investigations revealed that Petley, a former automotive engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, was also deeply involved in the abuse network. He was arrested in October last year after being identified as a customer of Little’s online activities. During questioning, Petley admitted to 11 charges and was subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison last month. Evidence obtained from his devices showed that he had paid Little to perform sexual acts in front of children, with payments totaling £750 between January 2017 and February 2018. The online chat logs and electronic files recovered from his hard drive included explicit images and videos, some depicting Callaghan sexually abusing a very young girl, with graphic descriptions of rape and abuse.

The hard drive also contained a nearly ten-minute-long video of Callaghan engaging in sexual activity with the young girl, along with numerous screenshots showing her performing sexual acts in front of the victim on at least ten different occasions from 2016 to 2018. These images and videos provided irrefutable evidence of her ongoing abuse, which was carried out in secret and hidden from the public eye. The hard drive also contained five indecent images of children, further highlighting the extent of her criminal conduct.

In May of this year, Callaghan was rearrested after authorities uncovered additional evidence linking her to Petley. This evidence included conversations and images stored on the encrypted hard drive, which detailed her discussions with Petley about what she would do for money and instructions on how to carry out the abuse. The authorities confirmed that the evidence pointed to a disturbing pattern of exploitation, with Callaghan actively participating in the sexual abuse of a young girl over a period of three years. Her sentencing at a future date will determine the full extent of her punishment for these grave crimes.