A MAN who made hundreds of indecent images and videos of children while posing as a 16-year-old online has been jailed.

Adrian Scott, 58, of Tidworth Road, Boscombe, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to ten counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, six of inciting a boy to engage in sexual activity without penetration, three of making indecent photographs of a child, one count of paying for sexual services of a boy without penetration and one of distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

Scott was jailed on Wednesday (November 24) for three years and eight months for all offences as well as being given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He was also added to the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Following a national investigation concerning child sexual abuse and exploitation relating to a website which has storage and file hosting service based in New Zealand, Scott was identified as having an account and having uploaded and shared a number of files, while he claimed to be 16.

In April 2020, officers from Wiltshire Police’s Child Internet Exploitation Team attended his address at the time in Great Durnford, Salisbury, with a search warrant.

A number of items were seized from the property where the extent of his offending was revealed, with evidence of Scott posing as a 16-year-old boy online to talk to other people about indecent images and using online chat sites to encourage boys as young as 13 to perform sexual acts, with money being sent on more than one occasion by online transfer.

The charges relate to 1,459 images and videos being recovered.

Detective Constable Jason Walsh, of the Wiltshire Police Child Internet Exploitation Team, said: “Cases such as this are often shocking and disturbing, and our job is to safeguard the victims.

“We are pleased to have secured a custodial sentence for Scott and this is testament to some superb partnership work.

“We will continue to act on intelligence we receive on these abhorrent crimes and will ensure the internet is not a safe place for individuals like Scott to prey on the most vulnerable in our communities.”

For more information and support for anyone who is concerned about someone accessing indecent images of children, or who has wider concerns about child abuse, visit Wiltshire Police's website.

Get more Salisbury news. 

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date, as well as signing up for one of our newsletters.

If you want online news with fewer ads, unlimited access and reader rewards - plus a chance to support our local journalism - find out more about registering or a digital subscription.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.