Newcastle paedophile tried to meet up with child, 14, while on bail for sharing sex video with perverts
A paedophile turned up to meet a child while on bail for sharing a video of himself having sex with an underage teen with other perverts.
Christopher Hodgson waited at the ticket machines at Newcastle Central Station for the 14-year-old but was instead confronted by the police, who were behind the fake profile he had been chatting and sending explicit messages and images to.
At the time he was on bail over a sickening collection of illegal images on his phone, featuring very young babies, animals and even himself with a teen boy, who prosecutors accept had told him he was 16 when he was not.
Hodgson had videoed himself having sex with the vulnerable teenager and shared it, meaning the victim will be online "potentially forever". Newcastle Crown Court heard Hodgson had sent and received child abuse images with other paedophiles and had chats about child rape.
The 46-year-old, of Stowell Street, Newcastle, admitted taking, making and distributing indecent images and possessing extreme pornography involving animals. He also pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following grooming, attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
Judge Julie Clemitson said the contents of Hodgson's communications "demonstrated the depths of depravity" that excited him as she branded him a danger to teenage boys. The judge jailed Hodgson for seven years and told him: "You have the ability to manipulate and groom children online and face to face.
"This is a sustained pattern of sexually motivated offending against children. You continue to pose a high risk of harm, particularly towards male children in their early teenage years."
Judge Clemitson said Hodgson's image collection involved "horrific abuse". The court heard he has no other convictions on his record. Ian Hudson, defending, said: "The only effective mitigation is that he had the good sense to plead guilty to all matters in the lower courts.
"I have to concede he is a high risk to children. The core problem can be addressed in the course of a significant determinate sentence."