January 2023

8 year sentence for paedophile who paid to watch child abuse online

A convicted paedophile who arranged to live stream child sex abuse has been jailed for eight years.

And a judge imposed an extended four year licence on Niall Frier because of the risk he poses and ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.

The 55-year-old Wallasey man was the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order at the time of his latest offences and Judge David Potter pointed out that his attitude towards chid sex abuse was “entrenched”.

He told Frier, who appeared at Liverpool Crown Court via video link from prison, “Hopefully the length of the sentence will enable you to progress and address your perverted thinking.”

Frier, of no fixed abode, had pleaded guilty to six offences involving attempting or arranging child sex offences between December 4, 2016 and July 2020 and he also admitted breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order made in December 2014 which restricted his internet use.

He had breached a similar order made in 2007 for indecent images offences.

Mark Phillips, prosecuting, said that Frier was under the supervision of a police child sex unit after his previous convictions and they visited his home unannounced on April 13 last year.

Asked if he had a mobile phone he produced an old style Nokia but they noticed a smart phone on the mantlepiece and he admitted he was in breach of the order by having it.

Further investigation revealed two laptops, a tablet and two mobile phones and he was arrested for breaching the order.

Examination of the devices revealed that between December 2016 and July 2020 he had been trying to incite young boys to engage in sexual activity including agreeing to pay via the internet to watch live child sex shows, including rape. 

Judge Potter told Frier, who has a previous conviction for sex assault, that he had engaged in Skype and WhatsApp conversations and just one of the offences involved 472 messages with an internet user using the handle ‘looking for a dad’.

He had arranged to watch live sex shows involving boys as young as 10, paying via Western Union and his breach of the order was “flagrant.”