Kent man who paid for child abuse images jailed for 13 years
- Published
NCA officers identified Matthew Bower after receiving information from the FBI
A Kent man has been jailed for encouraging and paying for the sexual abuse of children around the world.
The National Crime Agency said officers identified Matthew Bower, of Swanley, after receiving information from the FBI.
Bower, 52, was jailed for 13 years after pleading guilty at Croydon Crown Court.
The first victim, aged 15, told police in the US in 2017 she had been abused by a female family member for months.
She said the abuse was photographed and images sent to a man in the UK for cash.
After FBI officers arrested the woman, she gave them the email, username and PayPal details of the man she had taken the photographs for and the NCA identified Bower.
When he was arrested, officers searched his house and seized a number of devices.
The NCA said officers recovered chat logs showing Bower telling the woman what he wanted her to do to the victim.
Investigators found she had sent Bower 308 images of herself with the victim and two live-streamed videos between 2016 and 2017. Financial records showed Bower sent her about £6,000 over six years.
'Dangerous individual'
NCA officers found additional chat logs where Bower encouraged others to sexually abuse young children and identified a woman in Romania who had been abusing a child under the age of two, as directed by Bower.
She was convicted of rape and child abuse in 2019 and jailed for more than eight years.
The NCA said Bower also contacted children via Skype, encouraging them to send him naked photos and perform sexual acts on camera. Two girls from the US, 8 and 15, were identified as having been coerced by Bower into sending indecent images.
The NCA said Bower admitted 15 offences including causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and making over 1,700 indecent images of children between 2008 and 2017.
Jen Cruickshank, NCA senior investigating officer, said he was a "dangerous individual", adding: "He actively sought people online - both adults and children - whom he could coerce into sending him abuse material for his sexual gratification."
She paid tribute to the victims and said the first victim's report had enabled others to be safeguarded.
Bower was sentenced to 13 years and six months imprisonment and will serve an additional six years and six months on licence.
He was given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders register for life.
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