Man filmed My Little Pony sex act in front of girls

Warren Jackson admitted 26 offences

A paedophile who filmed himself performing graphic sex acts involving a My Little Pony toy in front of girls online has been jailed for more than eight years.

Warren Jackson, 43, recorded a haul of videos of himself over a six-year period in online chat rooms involving children as young as nine, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He was arrested in 2018, but the case took seven years to resolve due in large part to his lies to police about the films being edited, the court heard.

Jackson, from Cowpen in Blyth, Northumberland, admitted 26 offences including 19 counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and three of inciting a child to perform a sex act.

Officers from a police force's paedophile investigation team seized a mobile phone, laptop and computer tower when they raided Jackson's home on 10 November 2018, prosecutor Ellen Wright said.

They found 22 videos ranging in length from about 30 seconds to more than half an hour showing an online chatroom, with Jackson visible in one box and a child or children in the other, the court heard.

'Show you something?'

In three of the films, Jackson incited the children, including a 10-year-old girl, to perform sex acts as he pleasured himself, the court heard.

In some he would ask the girls if he could "show them something", then expose himself and start performing a sex act, Ms Wright said

In at least two of the videos, he penetrated a My Little Pony soft toy, while in another he used a sex aid in front of the children, the prosecutor said.

His victims aged in range from nine to 14 and officers also found almost 850 illegal images of children on his computer and 64 extreme pornographic ones, the court heard.

'Hundreds of victims'

Jackson told police he had not actually been speaking directly to the girls but rather he had taken videos of himself and edited them to go alongside footage he found online, Ms Wright said.

That led to a three-year delay as further forensic examinations were needed to prove he was lying, which extended even further during the coronavirus pandemic, the court heard.

Judge Amanda Rippon said none of the 27 or so girls in Jackson's videos had been identified but it was "well established" that "remote sexual abuse had devastating lifelong consequences" for the victims.

She said the other images he had saved were "revolting" and by looking at them he had abused "every single" one of the children featured, with the total number of his victims therefore being in the hundreds.

Judge Rippon said Jackson had shown "entrenched and comprehensive" sexual offending against children, telling him: "On every occasion you put your sexual needs above the welfare of each of those [victims]."

He was jailed for eight years and three months.

Jackson will have to sign the sex offenders register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order limiting his contact with children and access to the internet for the rest of his life.