NORTHAMPTON POLICE BRING JUSTICE FOR CHILD ABUSE OFFENDERS SIMON PEACH AND MATTHEW MATHER-FRANKS
Police successfully identified and apprehended the ringleader of an online child abuse network after arresting Simon Peach, a known paedophile from Northampton.In June 2021, Peach, 36, was sentenced to seven years in prison following the discovery of a laptop containing 128 recordings of live streams involving girls under the age of 16 performing sexual acts.
Northamptonshire Police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) then uncovered messages between Peach and Matthew Mather-Franks, who was later revealed to be a leading figure in the group and was subsequently arrested.
The group, believed to include between six and ten men, reportedly maintained a Google spreadsheet with information about young girls, primarily from Russia, who participated in live sexual broadcasts.
On Friday, February 11, Crown Court Judge His Honour Judge David Herbert QC sentenced Mather-Franks, 37, to eight years in prison.
Both Peach and Mather-Franks were already on the sex offenders register.
Peach, formerly residing on Clarke Road, was found to have more than 1,000 indecent images of children stored on his devices and laptops.
He breached a sexual harm prevention order at the time of his arrest in early 2020.
Officers also seized four devices belonging to Mather-Franks, which were not registered with the police, further breaching the sexual harm prevention order.
These devices were used to carry out online sexual offences involving young girls aged nine to 12, with some victims appearing intoxicated or drugged, including infants.
Judge Herbert criticized Mather-Franks, stating, "The facts show that the work you did as part of that order failed." Authorities also discovered evidence of images being shared within an encrypted Telegram group.
Mather-Franks, formerly of Redding Road, Rushden, admitted to three counts of making indecent images of children, one count of paying for the sexual services of a child, one count of distributing live streams of child abuse categorized as Category A, one count of breaching a sexual harm prevention order, and one count of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence.
Judge Herbert commented on his dangerous behaviour, saying, "You have an entrenched sexual interest in very young girls and you represent a serious danger to them." Mather-Franks is expected to serve a minimum of five years and four months before being eligible for parole.
Upon release, he will continue serving his sentence with an additional four-year licence period.
Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Andy Shears from POLIT expressed his satisfaction, stating, "I am really pleased to see the lengthy sentences handed out to both of these men who preyed on young children for their own depraved satisfaction.
Both men used sophisticated methods to try and evade detection which makes their behaviour even more deplorable.
However, there is nothing we can't and won't do to uncover child abuse and bring the offenders to justice.
The protection of children is something that is hugely important to me and to Northamptonshire Police and I hope this case shows that if you are a predator like Peach or Mather-Franks, we will catch up with you and put you where you belong — behind bars."
