A British pensioner who paid to watch underage girls in the Philippines being sexually abused online has been sentenced to prison.
Peter Booth was jailed for seven years and four months after pleading guilty to four charges of ‘causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child under 13 by paying to view the live abuse via Skype’.
The 74-year-old, of Llandudno, in north Wales, had also admitted charges of possessing indecent images of children and distributing such images, and having extreme pornographic material of children on a laptop and mobile phone.
Jailing him at Caernarfon Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, April 11), Judge Timothy Petts said: “What you did to these girls was absolutely horrific. It was all done for your perverted pleasure.
“In addition, investigations showed you were collecting images of child abuse and sharing these with others.
“These are very serious offences and only a lengthy prison sentence can be justified.”
The judge was told Booth was a married man with no previous convictions. However, his family had now disowned him and only a sister was standing by him.
Richard Edwards, prosecuting, said police became aware that indecent images of children were being uploaded to the internet from Booth’s address.
Officers raided his home, computer equipment was seized and Booth was arrested and interviewed.
Officers found two videos on a phone in which a man, later identified as Booth, could be seen masturbating in an inset screen as two girls — aged about six and nine — were being abused.
He had paid for access to the abuse and was “actively directing” what was happening, the court was told.
Further investigations showed Booth had made 250 transactions to eight recipients in the Philippines between September 2015 and June last year, which amounted to just under £20,000 — or about 1,300,000 pesos. According to the North Wales Pioneer, Booth claimed he gave financial support to a “ladyboy”.
After his release, Booth will be monitored by the Probation Service, is the subject of a lifelong Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and is banned from working with children or vulnerable adults. His details will remain on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
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