Paignton Paedophile Jailed for Sharing Child Abuse Images

PAIGNTON PAEDOPHILE JAILED FOR SHARING CHILD ABUSE IMAGES

A sick paedophile has been jailed for sharing movies of children being sexually abused online.

Christopher Prater, 30, of Shorton Valley Road in Paignton, was caught by police who went undercover in chatrooms.

Prater downloaded thousands of images from the dark web of children, including babies, being abused, Exeter Crown Court was told.

He said he was getting help for his perversion and wanted to change his ways.

But the judge said his offences were too serious for a suspended sentence and jailed him for two years and four months.

He pleaded guilty to a total of seven offences.

Three were for distributing indecent images, three for downloading, and one for possessing extreme images of bestiality.

The offending spanned from 2015 to 2023.

Police were alerted to suspicious activity by a user on the Session and Wickr platforms.

Prater sent undercover cops extremely distressing images of children being sexually abused.

Police traced his IP address and went to his home.

They seized items for examination and found he had downloaded 1,295 indecent images in the most serious category and more than 1,000 others.

He told police he did have a sexual interest in children and was getting help for his mental health.

He said he was 'relieved in a way' that he was caught and could start changing his behaviour.

Judge David Evans said Prater had a traumatic childhood, was employed, and had no previous convictions.

Prater was given a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and told to sign the sex offender register.

He will serve half of his sentence in jail before being released on licence.