A sex offender caught out in a crackdown on internet paedophiles has been jailed.
Charles Baty, 46, of Westacres, Wark, Hexham, Northumberland, was among 60 people arrested across the North East in a wave of co-ordinated raids code-named Operation Ore.
It followed a link-up between Northumbria Police and FBI investigators to trap perverts using pay-per-view American websites featuring youngsters being abused.
Judge Beatrice Bolton dealt with Baty while sitting at Durham Crown Court. He had admitted three counts of making indecent photographs and one of possession of indecent photographs.
He was jailed for nine months, with extended licence for three years, and placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years. An order was made for the forfeiture and destruction of photographs.
Officers seized hard drives from more than 100 computers during the operation in the North East, together with thousands of CDs, DVDs and floppy disks.
Among the 60 people arrested in the North East were doctors, a teacher and a foster carer, police revealed.
Images seized showed children as young as two, sometimes alone and sometimes with other children or adults, being abused. Many of the children appeared to be from the Far East.
Baty was among 15 people who appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court in March after Northumbria police swooped on the suspects’ homes and seized computers. The South Tyneside court was used for all the Northumbria Police cases.
