Sick pervert posed as schoolgirl to get indecent pics of boys
Preyed on victims as young as 8, then shared images in paedophile ring
ACONVICTED paedophile posed as a schoolgirl online to incite young boys to send indecent pictures of themselves - he then shared them in an online paedophile ring.
Heywood shoe warehouse worker Thomas Morton, 34, was being investigated for possession of indecent images when police stumbled across an app on his phone containing 18 named folders of children.
From there, they found a large number of social media accounts which he was using, posing as a girl aged between 12 and 14, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Officers from the GMP Sexual Crime Unit then discovered Morton had been using an encrypted dark web site to chat to a group of paedophiles.
There, they swapped the vile images and discussed tactics on how to get more footage, it was said.
Police identified 14 of the victims targeted - aged between 8 and 15 at the time of the offences - from across the UK and USA.
Morton, of Bury, pleaded guilty to three different indictments: 1: Three counts of making indecent images; one count of distributing indecent images; 17 counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity; 2: One count of breach of sexual harm prevention order; 3: Three counts of making indecent photographs of children.
On Friday he was jailed for 10 years with an extended period of six years on licence. Prosecutor Ben Lawrence told the court that following a seizure of his devices on March 3, 2020, an examination took place which revealed the full extent of his offending.
On one Samsung phone they found 18 photos and 86 videos of category A images - said to be the worst type.
They also found 31 still images and 138 videos on category B and 1,245 still images and 48 videos of category C.
On the other phone they found 30 still images and 103 videos of category A, 123 still images and 193 videos of category B and 2,338 still images and 70 videos of category C.
In total 238 category A images, 486 category B images and 3,724 category C images were found.
It was said he had tried to snap one of the phones in half as the police gained entry to his house.
“Officers also discovered a program with encrypted photo storage, of which there were 18 folders with the names of persons depicted in the indecent photos,” Mr Lawrence said.
“On his other phone he had a large number of social media accounts.
“Intelligence was received that the defendant was posing as a girl aged between 12 or 14.
“In one of the folders on the program, there were a number of pictures taken from a girl’s Facebook profile as well as self-taken indecent images of a child, but not showing the child’s face.
“The defendant would use the profile in order to contact boys.
“Most were teenagers, but some were younger, and he incited them to perform sexual acts and film themselves, made them believe they were talking with a teenage girl and have sexual exchanges on a regular basis.”
The court heard how 14 different boys, from the UK and the US were befriended and groomed by Morton.
He went on to encourage them to send him images of themselves and even advised them to set a timer so they would be able to take the pictures.
Morton then distributed some of the images into the paedophile group.
One of the victim’s targeted was just eight years old. Another two victims were said to be brothers.
Morton encouraged them to ‘sexually abuse each other’, the prosecution said.
Another boy aged 13 was incited to send 100 indecent images, of which 17 were distributed into the group.
One victim of Morton said in a statement: “Finding out that I had been a victim of crime like this made me feel really worried.
“One of the main things that worried me was that I found out that the police had found images of me and I was so concerned that my friends may see these images. This still concerns me now.
“I can’t believe that someone has done this to me. The person who has done this is a weirdo and it’s made me lose trust when I go online.”
In another statement, a mother of one of the boys said: “He is my eldest child and only son.
“As a parent you do your utmost to protect your children from harm.
“I feel like I have failed greatly and let my son down.”
Addressing Morton in the statement she said: “You took advantage of my son’s trusting nature, you took his innocence, you encouraged him in sexual activity and to view images when he was still a child.
“Although you may not have physically touched my son, you abused him. You have taken advantage of his age, his naivety and good nature. I am worried he could have been physically abused.”
She added that the victim’s father had struggled to come to terms with the abuse his son had suffered.
“He finds it awkward to discuss what happened.
“He feels he has been unable to protect him, he questions why he hid away in his room talking to someone like you.
“My son shrugged it off, not recognising that he is a victim.
“I am extremely proud of my son for co-operating with the police.
“He has not spoken to me about what happened and I don’t think he ever will.
“He is embarrassed and feels he has let his parents down.”
Morton was said to have six previous convictions for 28 offences including possession of indecent images of children.
Mitigating, his defence lawyer Stuart Neale said his client received little help to assist with his sexual interest in children after he was released from prison. “To an extent the defendant has been cast loose,” he said.
“He was in a poor mental state at the time.”
Sentencing him, Recorder Geoffrey Payne said the offences were a ‘campaign of predatory sexual offending against children’ and a ‘possession of a large number of indecent images’. You are a prolific and predatory sex offender and undoubtedly dangerous.
“You were exchanging images with like-minded paedophiles - your conduct was calculating and devious and you targeted young people.
“This was a systematic and determined way of offending.”
Morton, of Percy Street, was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely and must sign onto the Sex Offender’s Register for life.
Detective Constable Vicky Hadfield, of GMP’S Sexual Crime Unit, said: “I firstly want to pay tribute to the victims and their families who have been profoundly impacted by the abhorrent and predatory actions of Thomas Morton. Their bravery and dignity has been admirable.
“Morton is a massive danger to children.
“The hurt and horror of this kind of crime stays with
• Block paving • Patios • Tarmac • Driveway extensions • Imprinted concrete • Fencing • Turfing • Driveway Cleaning & Restorations victims and families for life, and I would encourage anyone affected by this case to contact police, or our partners, to report any abuse or exploitation so that the relevant authorities can act on it.”
FAMILIES whose children are eligible for free school meals or identified by children’s services as needing further support will receive vouchers to assist with the cost of food over the summer holidays.
An initial allocation of £60 (£15 per week) for each eligible child will be going out to families from next week to cover the first four weeks of the summer holidays.
Another £30 of vouchers will go out later on in the summer to cover the last two weeks of the holidays.
This latest round of vouchers sees £1,066,669 in assistance going out to over 7,180 families for over 12,500 eligible children to cover the six week holiday period.
Alongside the voucher support, families are also being given free membership to local food club and pantries.
Membership slips are going out with the voucher letters to families that are eligible.
Food clubs help families minimise food costs and are part of the sustainable package of support in the borough to support food provision.
The council is funding local food clubs and pantries so that they are able to cope with increased demand.
The total investment into this support is £1,132,699 of which £881,803 was funded by government, the remainder is from council funds.
This will be the last round of vouchers after the government confirmed it would not be providing any future funding for them.
Coun Rachel Massey, cabinet member for children’s services and education, said: “It’s worrying that this latest funding has been described by government as the last. We need a long term answer to this.
“The number of families on free school meals in our borough has shot up and we need to help them.
“I’m proud that despite huge budget cuts to the council we’re stepping in to plug the gap in funding.
“I hope today’s announcement is some reassurance for families in what must be such an uncertain and worrying time.”
This latest announcement sees over £2.9m of support through vouchers provided to families on free school meals in just over a year from both council and government funds.
Coun Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and co-operation, said: “We’ve provided extra voucher support during every school holiday period and we’re really proud of that.
“I’m delighted to invest in sustainable options for our families like our food clubs. It shows what funding councils can achieve.”
Alongside this support the council and Your Trust (formerly Link 4 Life) is running the Holiday Food and Activity Programme for those children who are on free school meals benefit. Events run across the summer holidays from a wide variety of providers and will see fun activities for a variety of age groups where they will also be fed.
If your circumstances have recently changed in these challenging times then you may be eligible for the free school meals benefit. To find out please visit rochdale.gov. uk/school For any families that are struggling the council also has a wide package of early help support available.
For more information please visit rochdale.gov. uk/earlyhelp or you can phone our early help team on 0300 303 8801 or email them at early. help@rochdale.gov.uk Vouchers are being distributed directly from the council, they are being posted out from 23 July 2021 and so will arrive after then and will take a few days to get out to everyone, there is no need to contact your child’s school about this.