Pervert told girl, 8, to take pics of four-year-old
KNOWN SEX OFFENDER POSED AS A TEEN ONLINE
A HIGH risk serial pervert who convinced an eight-year-old girl in America to take indecent photographs of her four-year-old sister had also made contact with at least 23 other children while posing as a teenager online.
Kristian Lewis was already a known sex offender, having been convicted of having child abuse images in 2015.
But despite the fact he was subject to a court order and being checked on by police, he acquired a secret second phone to fulfill his twisted desires.
When the mum of the youngsters in the USA went to the police after discovering an online conversation between her eight-year-old and a stranger in the UK, the net began to close on the paedophile.
Lewis, formerly of South Shields but latterly of Blyth, was identified as being behind the sick messages to the young girls. And when Minnesota police contacted Northumbria officers to arrest him, a phone hidden in his wardrobe revealed he had been in touch with many other children on social media site Kik.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the 36-year-old sent 10,000 messages under the fake name and over a period of just eight days had contacted 23 young children. A judge said there is “likely to be many more” youngsters who were spoken to by Lewis, who was already banned from having any contact with children under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order.
Referring to the messages to the girl in America, prosecutor Michael Bunch told the court: “In the conversation, the defendant incited her to take indecent images of her four-year-old sister.”
The court heard US detectives were able to trace the IP address of the sender who set up the account that had sent the messages to the girl. The information was then sent to Northumbria Police, who found a phone, that Lewis had not declared to his risk management officer, hidden in a wardrobe.
Two indecent pictures of the fouryear-old, taken by her sister, were recovered from the device.
He had also kept a “clean” phone, which he did declare to the authorities and would hand over for inspection, as required by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order imposed in 2015.
The order had been imposed as part of a suspended sentence for having indecent images of children.
Lewis, now of Tynedale Drive, Blyth, admitted two offences of breach of a sexual harm prevention order, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and making indecent photos of children.
Judge Edward Bindloss sentenced Lewis to five years and three months behind bars and said he must sign the sex offenders’ register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for life.
The judge told him: “The US authorities tracked what had happened, they investigated it, traced it to your IP address and informed the British police, who came and found the phone and exposed what had been going on.”
Judge Bindloss said Lewis poses a “high risk of serious harm to children”.
Kate Barnes, defending, said Lewis had initially complied with the orders made in 2015 but reverted to his previous, illegal, conduct after his relationship broke down and he moved out of the family home. Miss Barnes said Lewis had been drinking to excess and added: “He struggles to explain his conduct.”