A paedophile who continued his sick activity after he had been charged by police, was arrested at Cheshire Oaks after messaging adults acting as child ‘decoys’.
Derek Smith was sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Friday, June 23. The 42-year-old from Ellesmere Port, was earlier found guilty to 24 counts, including the possession and taking of indecent images of children, engaging in sexual communication with a child, inciting a child aged 13 to 17 to engage in sexual activity and multiple counts of rape.
The investigation initially began following a report from the National Crime Agency (NCA), which made Cheshire Police aware that a category C indecent image of a child had been uploaded to the internet. Detectives identified the address of the user who had uploaded the image. Smith was arrested in July, while searches were conducted at two addresses linked to him in Chester and Ellesmere Port.
