Paedophile who boasted of sex acts with dogs jailed for child images and bestiality

National Crime Agency says offenders hiding in online chatrooms are not beyond their reach

Jon Page, of Bridge Close in Kensington, was jailed for three-and-a-half years. (NCA)

A paedophile who boasted of performing sex acts with a dog has been jailed after investigators infiltrated a chatroom used by a “dangerous” community of offenders.

Under the screen name “wolfpupjohn”, 46-year-old Jon Page shared and discussed indecent images of children and extreme pornography online.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said he had “responded enthusiastically to a fantasy about rape and necrophilia involving children” in the messages.

Analysis of his computers, mobile phones and external hard drives also uncovered 78 images showing Page “engaged in sex acts with dogs”, officials said.

He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison at Southwark Crown Court after admitting 22 offences including making and distributing indecent images of children, bestiality and drug possession.

NCA officers investigated Page at his flat in Kensington, London, in February 2016 and released him on bail while the devices were examined, finding indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

They caused Page to be arrested for a second time, when searches uncovered crystal meth, a class A drug, and the class B ketamine.

The NCA said child abusers attempting hide behind anonymous usernames online were not beyond the reach of law enforcement and vowed to track them down.

Operations manager Martin Ludlow said: “Jon Page was part of a dangerous community of offenders who produce and share images of child and animal abuse in online chatrooms.

“They think hiding behind a username puts them beyond the reach of law enforcement but they’re wrong.

“Officers at the National Crime Agency and its partners have the investigative and technical skills to find these offenders and bring them before the courts.”

The case came after senior police officers warned that a “horrifying” number of British men are viewing child sex abuse images online.

Dave Thompson, the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, named child sexual exploitation alongside terrorism as one of the biggest challenges for forces.

“I am staggered by what I see in terms of the operations the force carries out on the peer-to-peer sharing of images and more sensitive covert policing techniques we carry out,” he told MPs last month.

“The amount of men in this country who appear to show an active interest in this area is horrifying and the scale of it takes my breath away.

“There is a really big discussion to have in society about how we deal with this that is much more than law enforcement.”

Offenders in the UK are also among the largest group of customers commissioning “cybersex trafficking” – a rising form of crime seeing children abused in online broadcasts.

Paedophiles have become increasingly adept at concealing their identities and communications, with encrypted chats, the dark web and live-streaming among the techniques used.

The NCA is among the agencies developing new detection tools to identify and remove material, while tracing those uploading and viewing it.