'Depraved' paedophile bragged about his horrific abuse to undercover police officer

A paedophile's horrific crimes were exposed after he didn't realise who he was bragging to online. Andrew Haddock admitted to sexually assaulting a child and sharing images of the abuse over the internet, the Liverpool Echo reports.

He was jailed for 13 and a half years at Liverpool Crown Court. Following an investigation, the 29-year-old was arrested in July 2023 after he boasted about his abuse online to an undercover police officer and shared images of the offences.

He was also found to be in possession of a quantity of prohibited images of children and extreme pornographic images. Haddock, of North Road in St Helens, was branded with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

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It means he will be listed on the sex offenders' register for the rest of his life.

Det Con Julia Jennings said: "A long and complex investigation has resulted in a sexual predator behind bars for a considerable amount of time. Haddock's utterly depraved actions has no place in our society, and he deserves to serve a lengthy prison sentence."

"When first arrested, Haddock lied to the police about the images that he had sent to the undercover officer, claiming not to know the identity of the child in them. Unfortunately, at this time we do not know what the true and lasting impact that Haddock's vile actions will have on his young victim."

"We were able to examine and scrutinise the content of the material on his devices and were able to positively identify the child in the images. We have specialist officers within our Online Child Abuse Investigations Team who are dedicated to investigating these crimes, bringing those responsible before