October 2008 Five years in jail for raping child Paedophile Tristan Myatt must spend at least five years behind bars after raping a child and sexually assaulting young children. The 20-year-old, pictured, admitted one charge of raping a child under 13, six sexual assaults of children and two sexual assaults by penetration of children. He also admitted two offences of making indecent images of children, four charges of distributing indecent photographs of children and 10 offences of possessing indecent photos of children. Myatt had been arrested as part of a Scotland Yard operation and detectives raided his Waterloo Road home in Cobridge in February. They seized his computer and he admitted accessing websites for paedophiles and using chat rooms to talk to other paedophiles. Alexander Jacobs, prosecuting at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, said: “He said he was a paedophile and had a sexual preference for six to nine-year-old girls.” Officers found 36,146 indecent pictures of children and 660 movies on Myatt’s computer. Mr Jacobs said there was evidence of Myatt distributing images and trading with others and that the defendant groomed his victims before taking advantage of them. The court heard Myatt was involved in setting up numerous online chat rooms and he would sometimes advise less computer-literate paedophiles on how to avoid detection. Anthony Longworth, defending, said Myatt, who has no previous convictions, has shown a willingness to co-operate with the authorities to address his behaviour. Judge Paul Glenn said he had considered jailing Myatt for life. But he told Myatt he must serve at least five years before he tries to convince the parole board he no longer poses a risk of re-offending. He is on the sex offenders’ register for life and was disqualified from working with children for life. Judge Glenn told him: “You betrayed the innocence of these young children. Three of your victims were extremely young – three, four and five. “I do not know what long-term effect your abuse is going to have on the children. “Everything I have read about you causes me great concern. You represent a serious and ongoing risk to children.” Following the sentence, Detective Inspector Steff Lungrin, of Staffordshire Police’s major investigation department, said: “The sentence is just. “I am comforted by the fact that the victims, their families and the wider community can be confident that they are safe from the risk of further abuse by Tristan Myatt and can try to rebuild their lives.”