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Rob Kennedy

Race hate sex offender Billy Charlton jailed for forwarding indecent image of child

Race hate sex offender Billy Charlton has been jailed for distributing an indecent image of a child to 47 people.

Charlton was under investigation for stirring up racial hatred when he forwarded an indecent image of a young boy and an animal to contacts on WhatsApp.

A court heard it is not suggested he is a paedophile but rather than he has a "sick sense of humour".

Go here for the latest reports and live updates from North East courts

When Charlton was jailed for 21 months for the race hate offences in 2019, he shouted at jurors: "I hope your daughters don't get raped".

He was locked up for spreading toxic lies in a series of public speeches in which he hid behind the cloak of wanting to protect women and children from sexual assault while disseminating hate-filled falsehoods about immigrants, Asians, black people and the police.

He was convicted of five counts of stirring up racial hatred after using allegations of rape, kidnap and drugging by a female to spread racist lies.

The judge who sentenced him on that occasion said he had "conflated all immigrants with rapes and sexual offending, thus peddling racist hatred based around falsehoods" and branded him a bully.

Now Charlton, 57, formerly of Seaham, County Durham, but latterly of Sidmouth Road, Bensham, Gateshead, has been jailed for three years for sending the video of a young boy aged between 10 and 14 in the summer of 2018.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

William 'Billy' Charlton (ChronicleLive)

Prosecutor Ian West told the court: "It's not suggested he is a a paedophile or gained sexual gratification from watching it or forwarding it.

"He just has, it seems, a sick sense of humour."

A jury found him guilty of distributing an indecent image of a child and he had previously admitted possessing extreme pornography involving an animal and an act likely to result in serious injury to a person's private parts.

He admitted the image was indecent and that he forwarded it but claimed he did not see it and did not believe it was indecent.

Charlton received the 18 second indecent video of a child at 11.30am on June 28, 2018 and forwarded it to 47 contacts or groups around 2pm that day.

Police became aware of the indecent image as part of another investigation and saw a man had been sent it by Charlton.

He admitted separate charges of possessing extreme pornography - one involving an adult having sex with an animal and the other likely to result in serious injury to a person's private parts.

Judge Sarah Mallett told him: "It is accepted by the prosecution you did not have any sexual motivation in distributing the image and that is one of the factors I have to consider."

But the judge said any distribution of such image risks "potential exposure to a large number of people" and the fact the video was already in the public domain was no consolation to the child featured in it.

Judge Mallett said Charlton has been assessed as "unlikely to engage mindfully in offence focused work" with the probation service and has "not proved to be susceptible to changing views".

The judge said Charlton has a "very limited prospect of rehabilitation" in the community.

The court heard he has 14 previous convictions, including violence in the 1980s, assault in 2004, racially aggravated public disorder in 2007 and the five counts of using threatening, abusive or intimidating words or behaviour to stir up racial hatred, for which he was jailed for 21 months in 2019.

Christopher Rose, defending, said Charlton had showed "crass indifference to the rights of the child by forwarding the image" but said there was no sexual motive behind the offence.

Mr Rose said Charlton is not heavily convicted and added: "Since his release he has been of good character. He has not committed any further offences."

Mr Rose said Charlton now leads and "isolated life" after the "public shaming".

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