Stockton predator collected 33,000 sexual images and videos including of children

A predator from Stockton has been jailed for 30 years after committing a catalogue of depraved sexual offences against children and young women.

Jay Stephen Perren, formerly known as Stephen Jardine, pleaded guilty to 25 offences at Teesside Crown Court.

Perren digitally documenting the crimes he had committed against his victims, the court heard.

He had stored the offending footage and images into individual folders under the victim’s name, or the location of where they lived.

These offences were committed over a number of years and documented in 33,000 images and videos which were stored in 140 folders on an SD card.

Perren was arrested in November 2020 following a two and a half year investigation.

Detective Constable Dave Medd from the Paedophile Online Investigation Team was in charge of the investigation.

He said: “Perren is a serial offender and a real danger to women and children.

"He committed unforgivable crimes against his victims, and subjected them to horrendous ordeals. 

"Perren was devious and manipulative, not only in hiding his crimes, but grooming vulnerable victims, recording his abuse of them and then storing these images on a memory card for his own depraved pleasure."

Perren pleaded guilty to all 25 offences at Teesside Crown Court on 26 June.

Some of the offences included five counts of rape, including on a child under 12-months-old, three counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, six counts of taking indecent images of a child and two counts of causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography.

He will now serve 30 years in jail, and upon his release, he will still be subject to five years’ extended licence period.

Perren will also be subject to lifetime restrictions under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and notification as a sex offender until he dies.

Indefinite restraining orders were also imposed, relating to all of his victims.

Claire Brinton, a specialist prosecutor with CPS North East’s Rape and Serious Sexual Assault Unit, said: “I sincerely hope that Perren’s victims can take some comfort from today, knowing that their evidence has played such a significant part in the lengthy imprisonment of a prolific and dangerous sexual predator.”

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