Eamon Goodfellow, 50, of St Albans, was arrested on 14 June 2018 by National Crime Agency officers, and all of his electronic devices were seized for analysis.
A number of chat logs were recovered in which Goodfellow discussed child abuse with facilitators, one of whom was based in the Philippines and the other in Romania.
Goodfellow was shown in the chats to be actively looking for children under the age of 13. When a child of the appropriate age was identified, he would instruct the facilitators to perform specific sexual acts on the children in order to live-stream the offence.
The evidence showed that he paid the facilitators to carry out the abuse.
Following a six-day trial, he was found guilty of two counts of attempting to cause sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 13 at St Albans Crown Court on April 12.
Today, he was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison. Goodfellow is also subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will be on the sex offenders list for the rest of his life.
According to Martin Ludlow of the National Crime Agency, “Goodfellow made it very clear in these chat logs that he has sexual interest in young children.
“He was assisted by facilitators whose motive is to make money.” He attempted to arrange for the most horrific abuse of vulnerable children thousands of miles away from him for his own gratification. This type of financially motivated crime is a major threat to the United Kingdom. The NCA collaborates with international law enforcement partners to protect children while also identifying and disrupting those willing to fund and perpetrate abuse. The NCA has strong ties with Philippine agencies and actively supports the work of the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Centre (PICACC).
National Crime Agency image(s)
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Published on: 18.38 BST
