Paedophile sentenced following cross-border police efforts

International partnership between police teams has led to the prison sentence of a man in relation to child sexual offences.

Timothy Edmonds appeared at Oxford Crown Court for sentencing after admitting to 15 charges relating to child sexual offences.

The27-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in prison after admitting to 15 sexual offences charges on December 9, 2011. The charges all relate to offences carried out against one child between January 2009 and January 2011.

They included four counts of rape of a child under 13, two counts of sexual activity with a child, seven counts of taking indecent images of a child and two counts of distributing indecent images of children.

Edmonds’ was arrested following a joint operation between Thames Valley Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and the Danish National High Tech Crime Centre`s (NITEC) Proactive Unit.

Danish authorities, working as part of the international victim identification network, located a number of child sexual abuse images online and referred them to the UK’s Victim Identification Team at CEOP.

An investigation by CEOP identified the suspect and the exact location of the abuse. Thames Valley Police were then able to launch an investigation and quickly identified Edmonds and his victim; 14 hours after the images were initially uploaded onto the internet.

Detective Inspector Laura MacInnes said: “Edmonds’ prosecution is the result of excellent partnership work carried out by Thames Valley Police, CEOP and the Danish police, to trace Edmonds and his victim. I hope that this case and the sentence handed out by the court illustrates that those who commit this type of offence have nowhere to hide and they will be brought to
justice.”

Sentencing Edmonds, the Judge praised the “excellent example” of the good work of CEOP.
Andy Baker, deputy chief executive of CEOP, added: “The close working relationship between CEOP’s Victim Identification Team and our colleagues in Denmark’s National High Tech Crime Centre meant officers from Thames Valley Police were able to locate the victim in the UK, just 14 hours after the abuse images were uploaded to the internet.

“Offenders who think they can share images of child abuse online should think twice – no matter where in the world you or your victims are, we and other law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to ensure you are identified, caught and brought to justice.”