July 2008

Child porn ‘family men’ jailed

Three paedophiles who were described by police as “family men” have been jailed for being members of an online child sex ring.

They will serve a total of six years in jail after police smashed an international gang of perverts who shared images of children via an Internet chatroom.

Married father-of-one David Adams, 45, of Hinton Waldrist near Faringdon, was jailed for 15 months at Oxford Crown Court on Monday after admitting possession and distribution of thousands of indecent images of children.

The former executive at Abingdon-based motor oil firm Infineum was jailed alongside fellow pervert Carl Rogerson, 36, (pictured above) of Cholswell Road, Abingdon.

He was given a three-year sentence, while Darren Hawkins, 38, from Broome Way, Banbury, will serve 21 months in prison.

Rogerson is a former Royal Logistic Corps Lance Corporal, based at Dalton Barracks, near Abingdon, and Hawkins was a bank worker at Lloyds TSB in Banbury.

Det Sgt Duncan Wynn, of the Thames Valley Police High Tech Crime Unit, said all three shared images with other paedophiles around the country via a Google chatroom.

They invented stories of how they had abused children in a bid to get morephotographs from their online friends. However, none of the three men actually carried out physical harm to children.

All three possessed tens of thousands of photos including some level five images – the worst kind – including torture.

Three children have been removed from sexual abuse as part of the investigation.

Det Sgt Wynn added: “The worrying thing about all this is these people were all family men, all living normal lives.

“Their families were completely shocked to find out about their double lives.

“Maybe public perception needs to change. The paedophile is not the dirty man wearing a mac hanging out around schools.”

Rogerson, who went online as ‘Belfast Boy’, was discharged from the Army after admitting the charges against him.

Adams, who has a daughter, was a sales manager who travelled the globe as part of his job.

The court heard Hawkins had been shunned by his family.

He and Adams left their jobs after pleading guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography.