Jail for man who set up online chat rooms to distribute indecent images of children

A man from Kent who set up online chat rooms to distribute indecent images of children has been jailed.

Christopher Ball, 50, was arrested at his home in Kilndown Close in Ashford in January 2020 after police received information he had posted an indecent image on social media.

An investigation by Kent Police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team then uncovered a large number of indecent images of children on his computers, including more than 1,200 of the most serious kind as classified by investigators.

Evidence was also found that Ball had repeatedly tried to contact children through the internet and incite them to commit sexual acts.

More than 20 chat logs were found from between November 2019 and January 2020, which showed Ball contacting children in a number of countries and sending them explicit clips.

He had also set up and managed online chat rooms in which more than 400 indecent images and moving clips were shared with others.

Ball was charged with 44 offences, including multiple charges of possessing, distributing and making indecent images of a child, attempting to sexually communicate with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Ball admitted all of those offences at Folkestone Magistrates' Court.

He was jailed for eight years and ordered to serve an extra two years on licence at Canterbury Crown Court.

He was made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will prohibit him from using a device capable of accessing the internet without police knowledge and will strictly limit his contact with children, as well as other restrictions.