A WEST Somerset man who live streamed child sexual abuse from the Philippines and shared indecent images of children has been jailed following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

Darren Ashton, aged 52, of Alcombe, Minehead, regularly accessed websites which streamed the real time abuse of children in the Philippines.

Calling himself ‘Daz from England’, Ashton discussed the sharing of images and videos of male children aged 13 and 14 years and talked about his preference for ‘cam shows’ rather than recorded videos.

In a deleted conversation recovered from his mobile phone, Ashton was talking to a child based in Singapore aged around 11 years old.

After receiving an image of the boy, Ashton encouraged him to send indecent pictures of himself to him.

NCA officers arrested Ashton at his home in Minehead after receiving intelligence from the Philippines National Police as part of their investigation into a Filipino national who had been arrested in the country.

Indecent images were discovered on his devices, 185 in the worst category A, 244 in category B, and 266 in category C, alongside 10 extreme or prohibited images.

Ashton was interviewed and denied the offences.

Later, he was charged and pleaded guilty on February 13 in Taunton Crown Court to nine child sexual abuse offences.

He was sentenced at the same court last week to four years in prison.

Ashton will also be on the Sex Offenders Register for life and subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely.

NCA operations manager Danielle Pownall said: “Darren Ashton was abusing children over the internet, encouraging them to send images and videos, and watching live streamed and real time child sexual abuse from the Philippines.

“Live streaming exploits vulnerable children and Ashton’s offending means he is directly responsible for the harm it causes them.”