Express & Star

Black Country paedophile jailed for luring children to strip

He posed as a 15-year-old girl on Facebook to groom unsuspecting children into stripping for him on webcam.

Published

And now junior football coach Kevin Eaton is behind bars. The 30-year-old roofer from Tipton created a bogus account and befriended children as young as 11 claiming to go to a Birmingham school. Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that he also had a collection of naked photos of a girl.

Eaton sent these photographs to boys duping them into thinking that it was his alter-ego.

The court was told that Eaton encouraged one girl to send a naked photo to him and then threatened to send it to her friends if she didn't send more.

The girl, now 13, was so distraught that she took an overdose and had to be treated in hospital.

He admitted 30 sexual offences against children.

Twenty counts were for inciting boys and girls to engage in sexual activity in front of webcams, seven counts relating to making indecent images of children – having encouraged them to send him naked photos – and three of distributing the images.

They were committed between July 2012 and March 2013.

Iain Willis, prosecuting, told the court how Eaton – who coaches a junior football team – tricked one victim who he began talking to when she was 11.

He said: "The defendant, under his false name, told her 'if you don't send more pictures of yourself I will send the others (pictures) I have of you to your friends'.

"This led the victim to break down and she told her mother who told the police.

"He then made further attempts later to encourage the child to go onto her Facebook account."

After it was reported to police an investigation was carried out in March 2013 that led Eaton to his parents' home after they traced an IP address.

They discovered he had contacted up to 100 children using his fake profile.

It also was found the paedophile had 285 images of children and had distributed 285 images to other sexual predators – 47 of which were moving images.

Mr Willis read out victim impact statements to the court which had been written by parents. One of which said the psychological and physical damage had 'change their lives completely'.

Alison Scott-Jones, defending Eaton, of no fixed address, said: "I can offer no mitigation for Mr Eaton.

"He knows he must take responsibility for his actions and that he will be serving substantial time in prison."

Judge Michael Dudley jailed Eaton for six years and told him he will serve half before being released on licence.

He must also sign the sex offenders' register for life and was also given a lifetime ban from working with children.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.