Paedophile who posed as boy sees jail term extended

A man who posed as a young boy to ask a nine-year-old girl to send nude pictures has had his jail term extended.

Joshua Wilson, 27, of Alice Close, Bedworth, pretended to be a 12-year-old boy when he contacted the girl on her phone, in 2024.

Wilson, who pleaded guilty to a series of offences, was initially jailed for four years, after a hearing at Warwick Crown Court on 7 March.

However, after Solicitor General Lucy Rigby referred his case to the Court of Appeal, saying the jail term was too lenient, Wilson's sentence was increased to five years and 10 months.

The court heard Wilson had contacted two children on social media, between May and September 2023.

He requested nude images and sent sexually-explicit images of himself to one of them.

Then in October 2024, following his arrest and while on bail, he contacted the girl, aged nine, on a social media site and asked her to send photographs.

He was reported by the girl's family, after they had spotted the messages on her phone.

He was found to have numerous indecent images of children and had uploaded some on to an instant messaging service.

Welcoming the increased sentence, Rigby said: "Joshua Wilson's crimes were sickening. He sought to befriend and sexually exploit vulnerable children."

Wilson had pleaded guilty to attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity, causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of engaging in sexual communications with a child and three counts of making an indecent image of children.

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