Man who befriended families to prey on kids jailed

Police found hundreds of indecent images and videos of children on Billy Ingram's phones

A sex offender who "manipulated" his way into family homes to prey on children has been jailed.

In August 2022, Billy Ingram, now 31, of Thorpe Way in Cambridge, followed a woman he knew to her home and after being invited into the property sexually assaulted her son the following morning.

A police investigation later found Ingram had befriended several families in Cambridge and had unsupervised access to their children which was a breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order he was given, as part of a separate investigation in 2017.

Appearing at Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday, he was jailed to 18 years in prison and eight years on licence.

Cambridgeshire Police found hundreds of indecent images and videos of children on two of Ingram's phones.

The force said there was also video footage showing Ingram sexually abusing a boy.

Officers were able to identify the boy who lived in the Greater Manchester area and it was confirmed Ingram had stayed at the address at the time the videos were recorded.

Another boy was identified by officers, who visited his home in West Mercia. He said Ingram contacted him via a computer game in 2020 when he was 10 years old and persuaded him to send an indecent image of himself.

'Devious sex offender'

At Cambridge Crown Court Ingram was found guilty of two counts of assaulting a boy under 13 by touching, one count of inciting a male child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of possessing indecent photographs of a child and had four breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.

PC Paul Evans said: "Ingram is a devious sex offender who befriended families and manipulated his way into their homes specifically so he could prey on their children.

"I'd like to commend all the children involved who assisted us with the investigation and their families.

"Their bravery in talking about what happened to them has resulted in Ingram being brought to justice."