North Tyneside man jailed after sending hundreds of child abuse images online

A pervert who distributed hundreds of child abuse images over a social media app was exposed after being caught in a police sting trying to chat to a 12-year-old.

John Watson initiated contact with the child's profile on Kik in November 2023, quickly turned the conversation sexual and sent graphic images.

Newcastle Crown Court heard an undercover police officer was behind the fake account and no real child was involved but officers raided his home as a result of the illicit messages.

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John Watsonplaceholder image
John Watson | Northumbria Police

Prosecutor Neil Pallister said when Watson's mobile phone was examined they found a haul of abuse pictures and videos featuring children as young as between 0 and three months old.

Mr Pallister said the handset revealed nine Kik chat threads where Watson had received child abuse images from others and 84 threads where he had distributed 800 videos and 17 images which were category A, which is the most serious.

He had also distributed seven images and three videos in Category B and 65 images and 14 videos which were category C.Watson's phone contained a collection of 145 category A pictures and 770 videos, as well as 247 images in the lower categories plus two prohibited images and 123 extreme pornography images.

Mr Pallister said one the victims in the images was a male baby aged between 0 and three months old being seriously abused by an adult male.

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Watson, 44, of Knarsdale Avenue, North Shields, North Tyneside, who has never been in trouble before, said when questioned he thought the children in the images were "not real" and the offending happened when he was intoxicated.

He admitted three offences of distributing indecent images of children, three of making indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornography images and possessing prohibited images.

In relation to the conversations with the undercover officer he thought was a child, Watson admitted attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause or incite a child to watch a sexual act.

Judge Penny Moreland jailed him for six years and said he must sign the sex offenders register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for life.

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The judge told him: "These are real children, really subjected to horrifying sexual abuse so you and people like you can swap images when you are drunk late at night."

Mark Harrison, defending, said Watson is of previous good character, has a good work record but had been in isolation with little social support and no real friendship group except online.

Mr Harrison said Watson "wrongly and naively" thought what he was doing did not feel real.

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