A 19-year-old man has admitted a number of child indecency offences.

Joseph Bailey, of Robin Road, Coaville, was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to six offences.

Bailey admitted:

  • two counts of causing a child to watch a sex act;
  • one count of voyeurism;
  • and three counts of possession of indecent images of children. The images related to one count of each category of A, B and C, with A being the most serious.

In April 2018, the police received a report from the mother of a child stating that she had information that there was an indecent image of her daughter in existence.

Specialist officers spoke to the girl who told them she had communicated with Bailey online. The girl disclosed that she had sent an indecent image of herself to Bailey, and that he had sent an indecent image of himself to her.

Following a warrant executed at Bailey’s address in May 2018, he was arrested and several digital devices were seized. His digital devices, namely computers, hard drives and phones, were examined over the course of the investigation, and as a result, other offences were identified, including indecent images of children and voyeurism.

Bailey was later charged with a number of offences, before he appeared at court earlier this month.

Detective constable Chris Perry, the investigating officer, said after the case: "This has been a long and complex investigation given the large number of devices that were seized during the warrant at Bailey’s address.

"It took us a significant amount of time to examine these devices and, as we did so, it only added to the length of our investigation with the additional offences we identified."

Bailey was given a total sentence of 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and placed on the sex offender register for 10 years.

A previous version of this article, based on a police press release, stated that Bailey pleaded guilty to one count of causing/inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity. We have subsequently been contacted by the police to say that there was an error in the press release, and in fact that charge was left to lie on file.