Sidmouth administrator of online paedophile forum jailed

A man who set up an online forum for sharing indecent images of children was sentenced to three years in jail at Exeter Crown Court on Thursday (15 June).

Nicholas Craig, 38, of All Saints Road in Sidmouth, was arrested by National Crime Agency investigators after he was identified as an administrator of a group on the online chat platform Kik.

Craig would monitor the forum, verify new members and remove those who were not active enough or failed to supply indecent images of children as per group rules.

After arresting Craig at his home in February 2022, NCA officers said they seized five devices. Forensic examination found them to contain 1,518 indecent images of children in categories A-C (A being the most severe).

Further enquiries showed that Craig had used a number of alias accounts in the names of teenage boys and girls to engage children in sexualised chats on Twitter and Telegram. The youngest person he contacted was aged 10.

When interviewed, Craig admitted to being one of the group administrators and claimed he had collected indecent images of children in order to report it to Kik and Twitter. However, he had made no such reports.

NCA Senior Investigator Patricia Lee said: "The account Craig gave about the Kik group he administered simply wasn't plausible.

"His failure to report its contents to police or social media platforms completely undermined his cover story.

"The NCA works tirelessly to protect children from sexual abuse and to ensure those who abuse them face justice."

Craig admitted three counts of attempting to engage a child in sexual communication and 16 indecent images of children offences at Exeter Crown Court on 12 May this year.

All the offences were committed between December 2017 and February 2022.

He was sentenced to three years imprisonment at the same court on Thursday 15 June. He was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and put on the sex offenders register.