A prolific paedophile who persuaded schoolgirls to take pictures of themselves before sharing them with boys at their schools has been jailed.
Ashley Ashington, of High Street, Neston, randomly targeted thousands of teenagers nationwide by social media messaging services asking them to take photographs of themselves for his own sexual gratification whilst he was on bail for similar offences.
But when two girls refused to 'go any further' in the images Ashington sent them to boys at their schools, who in turn showed them to classmates.
Appearing before Chester Crown Court on Friday, the 24-year-old was sentenced to 16 months behind bars after pleading guilty to possessing indecent images of children.
The court heard how in 2011 Ashington randomly targeted girls as young as 14-years-old chatting to them on MSN, asking them to undress on webcam before persuading them to send intimate pictures to him.
Prosecuting, Peter Hussy said unfortunately many of the girls were persuaded to send topless and fully naked photographs of themselves to Ashington – they had no idea he was a convicted paedophile.
“He messaged [them] completely out of the blue,” said Mr Hussey, describing how two of the girls were targeted by Ashington, and some of the girls were even asked if they would perform sexual acts on him and sent images indecent images in reply.”
“[They] were enticed into taking pictures, but when [they] were asked to take more [they] blocked him. Both girls were deeply traumatised to discover the images they had sent found themselves being sent to male students at their school by the defendant.”
Ashington was under investigation by police for making indecent images of children and was on the sex offenders’ register when he randomly approached the teenagers all across the country asking for images.
He pleaded guilty to the six ‘specimen charges’ during an earlier hearing.
Defending, Kenneth Grant said Ashington had not distributed the images to ‘like-minded’ individuals, and he had not tried to meet the girls or engage with them.
“He is now socially isolated, no one wants to talk to him,” said Mr Grant, describing his client as a ‘social pariah’.
“He acknowledges now that he has an attraction towards young girls. If he is to not pose a risk to females it has to start with him acknowledging he has a problem.”
Sentencing Ashington to 16 months behind bars Judge Roger Dutton slated him as a ‘wicked’ young man, who had targeted vulnerable teenagers who had no idea they were communicating with a convicted paedophile.
“You provided a small number of these images to a number of youngsters in the same school,” said Judge Dutton.
“They were not talking to boys there own age, they were talking with a convicted paedophile in his mid twenties. Vulnerable youngsters need to be protected from the worst aspects of the internet age.”
Ashington will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next 10 years. He was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order.
