A jealous woman who went to police about her ex-lover's horrific crimes against children has also been locked up after detectives realised she was heavily involved.
Erica Jones, 22, was working at the Pets At Home store in Garston in 2019 when she began a sexual affair with co-worker Phil Hudson, who had a girlfriend. Their fling involved twisted shared fantasies about abusing children, as proven by text messages sent between the two.
In August last year, 33-year-old Hudson, formerly of Lincoln Street in Garston, was jailed for 27 months at Liverpool Crown Court. However last week Jones, of Holmefield Avenue in Runcorn, followed him into a prison cell.
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Bernice Campbell, prosecuting the most recent case, said that during their twisted relationship Hudson sent photographs and a video of himself masturbating in the presence of a young child to Jones, who kept it on her mobile phone.
She told the court: "The two would also communicate via text and social media and would discuss their sexual fantasies including comments about children that had come into the shop.
"The fantasies, predominantly by her co-worker but also by the Defendant, would also involve young children."
On June 23 last year, after the couple broke up, Jones told her boss that Hudson had a "sexual interest in children" and was urged to go to the police. Jones filed a report two days later, which led to Hudson being arrested and his phone being seized.
To help police investigate her ex, Jones had also given officers her mobile phone exposing her own complicity in his offending.
Ms Campbell told the court: "During her interview, the Defendant stated that she loved her ex-partner and would do anything for him. She admitted that she would also engage in sexual fantasy talk.
"However, in March 2022 she concluded that what he was saying was potentially criminal and wrong so decided to get evidence to show the police. At this time she had also found out that her co-worker had shared photographs of herself with others.
"From the mobile phone download it can be seen that the defendant had received two images from her co-worker, one on June 3, 2020, one on December 2, 2021, and a video on January 3, 2022. She did not however, disclose these to the Police until June 2022, stating that they were evidence that she had collated to show her co-worker was a paedophile."
After an investigation, Hudson eventually pleaded guilty to nine child sex offences, including two counts of engaging sexual activity in the presence of a child, and possessing indecent images of children.
However, analysis of conversations between Jones and Hudson led police to make further discoveries. Ms Campbell told the court: "A detective reviewed the mobile phone download and established that both the Defendant [Jones] and her co-worker had been sharing fantasies involving young children and that she had, on many occasions, been the instigator."
Most of the messages sent by Jones are too graphic to publish, but referred to Jones and the young child victim "working together" to perform sex acts on Hudson. On one occasion, while Hudson was apparently in a bath, she said: "It's a shame [the victim] was not there with you."
The court heard Jones was arrested on August 22 last year. She was interviewed and accepted that she would “play along and engage in her co-workers fantasies about children but that she had no interest in children herself”.
She accepted that she had kept the images and video and had made comments about it, and also accepted that she went to the Police in part because she was upset with Hudson as he would not leave his girlfriend for her."
She later pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence.
The court heard Jones had come forward and reported the abuse.
However, she was jailed for 24 months.
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