Teesside man jailed for serious child sexual abuse crimes
The case has been described as one of the worst ever dealt with by Cleveland Police
A Teesside man has been jailed, for a range of serious child sexual abuse crimes, after an investigation described as one of the worst ever dealt with by Cleveland Police.
23 year old Ryan Smith was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court today, after being convicted of 9 offences,
They included; three counts of distributing indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images of children, possessing a paedophile manual and possessing extreme pornography- including bestiality, possessing prohibited images of a child.
Detective Chief Inspector Dave Glass, leads Cleveland Police's paedophile and online investigation team (POLIT).
He tells us it was a horrific case to work on;
"Within those downloads, some - what we call extreme - images were located within image and video format,
"Which were some of the worst images that we've seen in the force area, over time."
He also explains the investigation had a severe impact on his officers;
"I'm very aware of the impact that this may have had on my officers within the POLIT team,
"We have processes in place to monitor their welfare,
"However this particular case was quite harrowing and as such we've put particular measures in place to try and monitor their welfare and ensure they're supported moving forward."