Australian paedophile preyed on UK children

Brett Allford's home in Australia was raided in October 2022

An Australian paedophile jailed after an international police operation preyed on eight children from the UK.

Brett Allford, 42, from Edwardstown in Adelaide, contacted 10 children over Snapchat and Instagram including eight from Redditch in Worcestershire.

Allford, described in Australian media as a former cricket and football club umpire, enticed his victims to send revealing photos and videos.

He was jailed on Monday for 23 years after pleading guilty to 14 online child abuse offences.

Australian police began investigating Allford in 2022 after receiving a report from West Mercia Police of a teenager engaging online with a man suspected to be in South Australia.

Officers raided his home in October that year and seized a phone which contained sexually explicit communications with 10 victims, aged 11 to 16, from the UK and Canada.

There were "numerous files containing child abuse images", West Mercia Police said.

Allford had manipulated the victims and taken advantage of their personal circumstances "to satisfy his deviant sexual desires", the force added.

He enticed victims to send photos and videos by offering money to spend on clothes or food.

In passing sentence, Judge Paul Muscat at the South Australian District Court, said some of the Redditch victims had been known to each other and because his victims had lived overseas, detection had been more difficult.

He said the case "illustrates the ease with which children can be sexually abused or exploited by predators communicating with them online".

The judge described his actions as "sinister" and said he had taken advantage of children who "were plainly at a vulnerable age, easily influenced and emotionally immature".