A Salford man has been jailed for encouraging child sexual abuse.

Damen Scott (25/05/1985) of Ashawe Terrace, Little Hulton was today (Tuesday 17 December 2019) sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to 21 years in prison after being found guilty of 17 counts of child sexual offences, including ‘encourage the commission of a child sex offence’ he was ordered to sign the sexual offenders register for life. He has also been issued with a lifelong sexual harm prevention order.

The court heard how on Tuesday 30 May 2017, Surrey police executed a warrant at the home address of a man and seized a number of devices.

Examination of the devices revealed online communication between the man and Scott in which the man had sent a number of images to Scott which police believed were images of children.

On Thursday 26 October 2017, GMP received information from West Midlands police informing them that Scott had been using a messaging service to talk graphically about child sexual abuse with a second man. Scott had been encouraging the second man to carry out acts of child sexual abuse and share the indecent images with him.

As part of this investigation, officers executed a warrant at Scott’s home address on Tuesday 2 November 2017 and seized multiple mobile phones. Upon analysis, a number of indecent images of children were found on these devices.

Detective Chief Inspector Judith Holmes, from GMP’s Public Protection division, said: “The severity of this case should not be underestimated. Scott is a prolific paedophile who repeatedly encouraged the abuse of vulnerable children – one of which was a baby.

“I would like to thank the team of dedicated officers as well as our colleagues in other forces across the country, whose hard work and commitment has been instrumental in achieving today’s result.

“I want to reassure the people of Greater Manchester that tackling the exploitation of children is a priority for GMP and we will do everything within our power to keep our children safe. For anyone who is thinking of engaging in this type of sinister criminal behaviour - we will find you and we will bring you to justice.

“Sexual abuse can have a devastating impact on children, and it is important that you report any suspicious activity no matter how minor you may think this is to police immediately.”

Greater Manchester Police are committed to investigating all child sexual exploitation which can be reported by dialling 101 or 999 in an emergency.

Through the It’s Not Okay campaign, which was launched in 2013, GMP have worked extremely hard to protect children at risk of sexual exploitation, to prevent it from happening and target those responsible.

Multi agency co-located teams were set up in every borough across Greater Manchester and much of our work has included the education of children, parents, professionals and members of the community to recognise this form of child abuse.