West Molesey man sentenced to five years in prison for online sex offences with a child

James Jeffrey, 45, of Cherry Orchard Road, West Molesey was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday (Tuesday, 11 May) at Kingston Crown Court, following an investigation by Surrey Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team.   

In 2018, Surrey Police received intelligence that an email address was being used to post indecent videos of children to an online chat group. The email address was traced to Jeffrey and he was arrested at his work while a search of his home was undertaken. Three mobile phones were seized.

Accessing the PIN-protected phones took some time because Jeffrey was uncooperative and refused to provide police with the correct codes. Surrey Police investigators were, however, able to gain access to the phones with the assistance of a forensics lab and subsequently uncovered a series of explicit WhatsApp and Facebook messenger chats on one of the devices between Jeffrey and a female who was found to be 14 years old.

After a trial at Kingston Crown Court in March 2021, Jeffrey was found guilty of sexual communication with a child, causing a child to watch a sexual act and two charges of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing an extreme pornographic image.

Jeffrey has also been given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) by the court. 

Investigating officer Detective Sergeant James Tibbs from the force’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team said:

“The victim has shown incredible bravery and determination in helping us with our investigation. I sincerely hope she and her family can move on from this and that Jeffrey being behind bars for what he has done helps them do that. Jeffrey is clearly a predatory and manipulative paedophile and it has taken time to get to this point so it’s extremely satisfying to see him sentenced.

“Surrey Police is committed to fully investigating all offences of this nature and will always follow every line of enquiry to ensure that suspects are identified, located and brought to justice. Providing a fake PIN like Jeffrey did may delay our investigative work briefly but he was naïve if he thought this was enough to stop us investigating such an appalling crime.”