A 'monster' used images of a Facebook friend and her children in order to create a false online profile enabling him to chat with others about child sex abuse, a court has heard.

Adam Bessey, 37, had been a friend of the victim on Facebook and conducted "quite a significant harvest" of photos of her and her children which he used to "develop a false online profile".

Norwich Crown Court heard he used around 820 innocent images he had taken from the victim's Facebook account, on a Kik conversation platform where he chatted with others about the "sexual abuse of children".

Eastern Daily Press:

Martin Ivory, prosecuting, said Norfolk Constabulary was contacted after sexualised conversations were discovered with individuals in south Wales and London.

Bessey, of Wheatacre Drive, Corton, near Lowestoft, appeared at court on Tuesday (June 6) after he admitted two counts of publishing an obscene article between May 2 and June 27 2021 and October 2 and 11 2021.

The court heard an impact statement from the victim who described her horror at "the thought that some monster was using my innocent children for their own sexual gratification".

She said that as a mother her job was to "protect my children" but now feels "I've let them down or not protected them as I should've done".

Bessey who has no previous convictions, was jailed for 12 months by Judge Anthony Bate who said the victim had been "betrayed in a way that was utterly monstrous".

Eastern Daily Press:

Judge Bate said the fact he had circulated these images in "that dark world" meant they might "never be recovered".

Damien Moore, mitigating, said Bessey, who has no previous convictions, was "desperately sorry for his actions".

He said at the time of the offences Bessey's "addiction to chatrooms had become darker and out of hand".

Bessey was also made the subject of an indefinite restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the victim directly or indirectly.