October 2006 PAEDOPHILE WEB SHAME AN INTERNET paedophile groomed three South Yorkshire children and encouraged them to take part in sexual activity as he watched on a webcam, a court was told. Devious Ryan Sheardown befriended the youngsters – two girls and a boy who all lived in the Rotherham area – in an online chatroom, by pretending to be a nine-year-old boy. The 24-year-old pervert, who is today beginning a lengthy prison sentence, even suggested meeting one of the girls after school. He was caught after her horrified mother checked a log of the eight-year-old’s internet use and contacted police. Sheardown pleaded guilty to nine charges of encouraging children under 13 to engage in sexual activity at Sheffield Crown Court. He also admitted a further three counts of making indecent images, relating to child pornography found on his computer. James Baird, prosecuting, said: “Sheardown made contact with the children via the MSN messenger chatroom service using a webcam facility. “He initially began engaging with a nine-year-old girl in spring 2005, sending texts of a sexual nature and requesting she exposed herself in front of the camera. On June 2005 she was banned from using the computer by her parents but Sheardown was able to maintain contact with her through her eight-year-old friend’s computer.” The court heard sick Sheardown also persuaded the second girl to join in. Mr Baird said: “His conversation became more sexually explicit and he began not only to ask the girls to expose themselves but to engage in sexual activity.” On one occasion they were with an eight-year-old boy and Sheardown persuaded him to join in, the court was told. But he was caught after the younger girl’s mother became suspicious of the amount of time her daughter was spending on the internet, and of the new “friend” she talked about, the court was told. Mr Baird said: “On September 24 last year her mother decided to check her daughter’s use of the MSN messenger facility. She had been aware her daughter was talking to someone through the computer called Ryan. “But she was horrified to find texts written in explicit terms and an even more concerning conversation where Ryan indicated a possibility of meeting after school in Rotherham.” After police were called in, the computers were examined and the children interviewed. Officers arrested Sheardown four days later. When interviewed Sheardown, from Catterick, North Yorkshire, claimed he believed the children were aged 10 or 11, but a check of the computers found they had told him their true ages. “He also tried to suggest the girls had incited the sexual conversations”, Mr Baird said. The hard drive on Sheardown’s PC contained three further child porn pictures, which he admitted downloading from the internet. Sheardown hung his head as Judge Alan Goldsack QC, Honorary Recorder of Sheffield, jailed him for a total of four years and ordered he should undergo a sex offenders’ treatment programme while behind bars. The judge said: “All that happened was for your selfish and perverse sexual gratification. You either gave no thought to or ignored the effect this behaviour might have on your victims.”