Leamington man jailed for paying two women to sexually abuse children online

An automotive engineer from Leamington has been jailed for paying two women to sexually abuse children online.
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At Isleworth Crown Court on Friday (Nov 8), Dean Petley, 30, was setenced to eight years in prison.

Christine Callaghan, 33, was paid £2,285 by Petley to carry out the abuse over Skype. Callaghan admitted four charges.

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National Crime Agency officers discovered the duo’s offending through an investigation into Jodie Little, 30, who was jailed for 12 years and four months in August for sexually abusing children online.

Dean PetleyDean Petley
Dean Petley

In July last year the NCA became aware of Little sexually abusing children on an adult services website from her home in northern Cyprus.

She admitted nine offences. She was convicted of eight using Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 – legislation designed to prosecute British nationals in the UK for crimes committed abroad.

The investigation into Little generated new leads.

In October last year Petley, of Leamington, was arrested after being identified as one of Little’s customers.

Christine CallaghanChristine Callaghan
Christine Callaghan
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Online chat extracted from Little’s devices showed he had asked her to perform sex acts in front of young children and that he paid her £750 from January 2017 to February 2018 to see her sexually abuse two victims.

Little, originally from Huddersfield, sent Petley 10 electronic files, one of which showed her sexually abusing a very young girl and talking graphically about the child being raped.

He was rearrested in May this year after further evidence was found on an encrypted hard drive at his home.

It contained screenshots of conversations with Callaghan, of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, over two years and full facial images of her abusing the girl with a small window of Petley watching it.

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NCA officers discovered evidence of Callaghan discussing what she would do for money and of Petley instructing her how to abuse the victim.

The hard drive also contained a video almost 10 minutes long of Callaghan abusing the young girl. Screenshots showed that on at least 10 different dates over three years, 2016 to 2018, she performed penetrative sexual activity in front of the victim and also sexually abused her.

Five indecent images of children were also found on the drive.

Callaghan will be sentenced at a date to be confirmed.

Jason Booth, NCA operations manager, said: “Petley’s and Callaghan’s convictions were only possible because of our determination to make Jodie Little face justice.

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“Distance is not a barrier for the NCA in pursuing UK child sex offenders wherever they are. The investigation into Little has unravelled other leads that our policing partners are working on.

“These were horrendous crimes, but they’re an example of what the NCA is seeing more and more with increasingly worsening cyber-enabled child sexual offending.

“The NCA knows that the scale and severity of offending against children are worsening.

“We and UK police arrest around 500 child sex offenders a month and safeguard about 700 children a month.

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“There is no greater priority for us than protecting children.”

Child Protection Charity The Lucy Faithfull Foundation runs the Stop It Now! helpline which offers confidential advice to anyone concerned about their own or someone else’s behaviour towards children.