A PERVERT with a sexual interest in underage girls was caught out when his girlfriend became suspicious about his online activities.

Christopher McAvoy's girlfriend discovered that he had two Instagram accounts and believing that he was cheating on her she started to interact with the young people he was following on the app.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 21-year-old had sent at least two '****-pics' to the young girls he was following after his girlfriend set up a group chat pretending to be McAvoy.

His partner then raised concerns about his online activity before her mother contacted the police and the student was arrested.

Jeremy Barton, prosecuting, said McAvoy's girlfriend looked up his second account and discovered that many of the people he followed appeared to be under the age of 16 with one of them being under 13.

Mr Barton said McAvoy's profile gave his age as 14 despite being 19 at the time of the offences.

He added: "She noticed all of the messages, sent and received, on that account had been deleted and that made her more suspicious.

"She set up a group chat pretending to be the defendant and contacted some of the girls and asked what messages had been sent to them. One said he had sent her picture of his '****' and another said she had been sent a picture of a similar nature."

A police search of his mobile phone and electronic devices revealed a four minute-long video of young girls being sexually abused and 72 indecent images of children – some which had been downloaded while he was staying in Marske, east Cleveland.

McAvoy, formerly of Peacock Street, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to a charge of making an indecent video and another charge of making indecent photographs of children between January 13 2018 and May 5 last year.

Stephen Constantine, in mitigation, said his client had now returned to the Liverpool area and was living with a relative in Prescot.

He said his client was only 17 when his offences started and urged the judge to suspend the inevitable custodial sentence after he made full admissions when interviewed by the police in March this year.

Judge James Brown sentenced McAvoy to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years telling him he 'clearly had an interest in young girls'.

He said: "The video captured the appalling abuse of children as young as ten, this is a problem that is endemic on the internet and to some degree, if people like you didn't look for them, there is an argument that the exploitation of these children would not happen in the frequent way it does."

McAvoy was made subject to a ten-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.

The judge added: "Can I just commend the conduct of your girlfriend that brought your behaviour to light."

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