April 2016 Perverted Scout leader lied about his age to trick girls into sex activity A perverted Scoutleader who lied about his age to trick young girls into sex acts has been jailed A court was told that 41-year-old Matthew Burhouse pretended to be in his 20s to chat to teenage girls in internet chatrooms, encouraging them to engage in sexual activity. Burhouse, 41 was jailed for two years at Leeds Crown Court after a judge heard about his secret life which also includeded child sexual abuse images Catherine Silverton prosecuting said police had searched Burhouse’s home in Dowker Street, Milnsbridge, in March last year and recovered three hard drives, a server and a laptop. Matthew Burhouse at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court They were examined and six images and four movies at Category A, the most serious involving penetrative sexual activity, were found, along with five images and 19 movies at Category B and 15 images at category C. The children depicted were aged between six and 14 and had been downloaded between December 2011 and March last year, at a time when he was a Scoutleader in Golcar. Officers also discovered one extreme pornographic image and four movies involving animals. Examination of the devices also revealed he had made internet searches using terms such as pretty young girl and innocent young girl. Miss Silverton said never met any of the girls online but would ask those aged 15-16 to do things by touching themselves sexually while describing it and he would pleasure himself at the same time. Robin Frieze representing Burhouse said his arrest had followed information being given to the police by a paedophile hunter posing as a teenage girl. The offences involving the chatrooms had then only come to light because of the defendant’s honesty in interview since no victims had actually been identified. “These are not contact offences, it was virtual contact.” Mr Frieze said Burhouse had lost his job following his arrest and suggested he was classically the type of person who would benefit from working with the probation service on the sex offender treatment programme. Burhouse admitted six charges of possessing indecent images, one of possessing extreme pornography and three of inciting children to engage in sexual activity. He was jailed for two years, ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting contact with children under 16 and preventing his access to chat rooms or sites containing explicit sexual material. March 2016 Man collected sickening images of children & used chat rooms to groom youngsters A man targeted young girls online after infiltrating chat rooms and encouraged them to engage in sexual activity. Police found evidence of this as well as dozens of sick images of children when they raided the Milnsbridge home of Matthew Burhouse. The 41-year-old used the Internet and social media to interact with the girls, who were aged just 15. At Kirklees Magistrates’ Court , he pleaded guilty to three charges of causing or inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity. Burhouse, of Dowker Street, also admitted six charges of indecent images of children and one charge of possessing an extreme pornographic image. The offences came to light as a result of an investigation by South Wales Police. This was into a blackmailing plot where a man posed as a young girl to extort money from men online. Police found email addresses of various people he had been blackmailing, including Burhouse. They attended at his home where they found indecent images and movies of children on his computer. They included five category A images, which are the most serious and involve penetrative sexual activity. There were four category B images, which involve non-penetrative sexual activity, and 14 at category C involving images not falling into the other two categories. Police also discovered three category A movies, and 18 movies classed as category B. They found five extreme pornographic images which were grossly offence and portrayed a person performing an act of intercourse with an animal. The officers found evidence of chat rooms where Burhouse had been messaging schoolgirls. He asked the girls, who were aged around 15, to touch themselves sexually and describe what they were doing. Jill Seddon, prosecuting, said: “He used social media and the Internet to incite these girls into sexual activity.” District Judge Michael Fanning sent Burhouse’s case to Leeds Crown Court for sentencing on April 5. He told him: “These are serious matters and this court’s sentencing powers are limited. “It’s appropriate that the wider sentencing powers at crown court are used.” Burhouse was bailed with the condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with a child aged under 16, save for inadvertent contact in everyday life. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and must have to attend at the police station within three days to give his details.