November 2017 Dunmow company director watched the rape of newborn babies online A former foreign office worker and company director posed as a teenage girl to lure under-age boys into sending explicit videos and watched the vile rape of newborn babies online. Colin Grant, 51, of Leaden Close, Leaden Roding, near Dunmow, used a pseudonym on Skype to convince the 13 boys, aged between 13 and 15, into masturbating for him on camera Today he was sentenced to five years and six months for 18 separate offences involving sexual activity with children and possessing indecent images. Prosecuting, Marc Brown QC said: “On May 19, 2016, the Essex Police investigation team received intelligence that the user of an address had been discussing sexual activity of children and sending indecent images to an undercover officer. “As a result of some of that material, the officer said it was apparent that what was being accessed by this defendant was live abuse in another country.” As well as streaming child abuse, Grant, a director of computer training school Harper Grant Ltd, also posed as an adolescent girl under the username Sally Moll to lure underage boys into sexual activity. Mr Brown said: “He met a young man on the anonymous chat service, Omegle. He persuaded that young man to come across onto Skype and then what he would do is say his web camera was broken, but he can send him images.” In a series of chats, Grant, posing as Sally Moll, would say to boys “Want to show me your willy? I wish you would show me a video.” A total of 13 victims were identified through these means, 12 in the United States, and one in the UK. When police investigated his devices, they also uncovered a string of indecent images and videos, including several videos of new-born babies being raped. “On his computer, there were the worst imaginable kind of images,” said Mr Brown. “There are images that show the rape of children that are so young they are not able to walk.” A number of the images and videos focus on one girl in particular, the court heard. Mr Brown said: “She can be observed as she grows up, from about four to six years old. As she does, she looks older but more beaten, as the images and files progress. “She is in dirty clothes, has dirty hair and has blemishes on her skin. “Within that sequence there is an image where she is made to hold up a sign in which the date is set out in order to confirm she is currently being abused.” In her sentencing remarks, Judge Patricia Lynch QC said that the hardships Grant and his family had faced did not compare to his offences. “You must understand that when you cross the Rubicon between viewing material to actively contacting children that increases the seriousness of the offence,” she said. “Those were adolescent boys who thought they were dealing with an adolescent girl. “I do not want either you or your family to feel that I have not taken into account your suffering. “But they must understand that it is my duty to pass deterrent sentences to protect these children.”