Locations
Orchard Place, Clacton On Sea, CO15
Description
Essex Police worked closely with officers from a force in the Midlands to ensure a dangerous online offender was jailed.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Matthew Wright said:
Our online investigation team worked with our colleagues from West Mercia after we were made aware of reports of online offences involving a child.
The safety of children is of paramount importance and an investigation was launched to quickly ensure all the evidence could be gathered and the suspect arrested.
Posed as a photographer
On Friday October 17 at Chelmsford Crown Court, Marc Yeomans was jailed for more than 14 years and ordered serve a further five on licence.
Posing as a photographer Essex-based Yeomans contacted a child, who lives in the West Midlands, through Instagram and asked him to send inappropriate images (including nude images) to him as part of an “opportunity to work as a model for a magazine”.
His offending came to light when the victim’s father contacted police after discovering messages from Yeomans on his son’s phone.
Between August and November 2019 Yeomans used the social media site to initiate a conversation with the child and repeatedly asked for images.
Following a detailed investigation Yeomans was arrested, and devices were seized from his work, car and later his house.
When interviewed he denied the allegations and said he had committed no offences and had not secretly communicated with a child.
Multiple charges
However further offending was discovered and 50-year-old Yeomans was further arrested and charged with the following offences:
- Attempting to cause or incite a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity
- Attempting to possess an indecent photograph of a child
- Engaged in sexual communications with a child
- Two counts of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity
- One count of attempting to cause or incite a child under 16 to watch or look at an image of sexual activity
- Two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child
- Six counts of making indecent photographs of a child (1 Category A, 4 Category B and 9 Category C)
Yeomans, formerly of Orchard Place, Clacton-on Sea, had denied all the charges, but ahead of his trial date on Monday 1 September he plead guilty to 12 of them and three charges - engaged in sexual communications with a child and the charges of attempted sexual communication with a child – were left to lie on file.
He was jailed for a total of 14 years and five months, with an extended five years on licence.
He will also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention and will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Following the sentencing Det Con Wright, from our Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT), added:
Yeomans preyed on a vulnerable child by pretending to be a photographer.
His father spotted what had happened after being concerned about his son’s behaviour and contacted police.
Social media is part of all our lives now, it’s worth checking your child’s privacy settings for each app and making sure they do not interact with people they do not know in real life.
We have lots of information on our website to help children stay safe online.