May 2023

Sex predator said he wanted ‘no teens only babies’ and fantasised about bestiality

A student shared extreme child sexual abuse images on social media and messaged other perverts that he wanted ‘not teen – only babies.’

Ethan Payne, 19, from Holloway, uploaded indecent material of children onto Snapchat, Instagram and Discord. He also portrayed acts of intercourse and oral sex with dead and alive animals.

Depraved Payne, who is student in microbiology and works part-time in a bakery, had his laptop and mobile phone seized during a search of his home.

Detectives obtained a warrant and on October 12, 2022, arrested Payne at his home address on suspicion of distributing indecent images of children.

The material on the devices was disturbing in the extreme, showing Payne to be a dangerous sex offender obsessed with necrophilia, paedophilia, animal abuse, murder and torture.

The investigation also uncovered sinister exchanges online where Payne interacted with other offenders sharing experiences, fantasies and extreme pornography.

When telling other offenders what he was looking for he repeatedly stated: “No teens – only babies”. He spoke about having sexually abused dogs.

On the laptop and mobile phone combined, officers found images in categories A to C, with A being the most extreme. There were 430 of Category A; 247 of Category B; 125 of Category C; and 157 extreme pornography images.

Payne had been careful to hide his offending using a sophisticated application that encrypted his exchanges and automatically deleted the evidence on a regular basis.

However, significant material and data were still found on the devices that evidenced offences committed between 24 September 2021 and July 24, 2022.

In a police interview, Payne initially denied any sexual attraction to children, but this was hugely undermined by the various chat logs where he had described in detail the horrific acts he wanted to commit against infants and animals, some of which were further evidenced with video footage.

On Tuesday, May 2, Payne was at Snaresbrook Crown court charged with the following:

• Three counts of possession of indecent image of a child

• Two counts of possession of extreme pornographic image/images portraying an act of intercourse / oral sex with a dead or alive animal

• Four counts of Distribute an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child

• One count of being an offender 18 or over causing/inciting a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

• One count of – Encourage/assist in the commission of an either way offence believing it will be committed – Serious Crime Act 2007.

Payne was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment with an extension period of three years. He has also been issued with a ten year Sexual Harm Prevention order and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.

He had previously pleaded guilty to 10 of 11 charges at the same court on 15 November 2022. One charge of possession of extreme pornographic image was later dropped as it was considered to be a duplicate offence.