Heartbroken father 'failed his daughter' after paedophile groomed her

A father whose daughter was manipulated by a paeodphile into sending explicit videos has told a court he feels like he 'failed to protect her'.

Jacob Bean, 23, messaged as many as four young girls in the UK and Europe on WhatsApp and Snapchat, sending them horrific videos of child abuse and pictures of his genitalia.

In the warped chats, the paedophile from Chartham, Kent, posed as a teenage boy to gain his victims' trust before then demanding the youngsters performed sex acts on themselves.

Bean was jailed for five-and-a-half years today at Canterbury Crown Court, with a judge telling him he used the internet to pursue his sexual interest in children and 'corrupt' his young victims.  

In a heartbreaking victim impact statement, the father of one of Bean's young victims revealed how his daughter, 10, had been 'stripped of her innocence' and exposed to 'one of the world's greatest evils'.

The brave parent, who cannot be named, said: 'As a father you never want anything bad to happen to your children. You do what you can to protect them and right now I feel like I have failed.

'My 10-year-old daughter has been exposed to one of the world's greatest evils. We have lost our daughter, the way we knew her to be.

'What can a parent possibly do to make this better? She has been stripped of her innocence. She is angry and has tried to stab herself.

'I cannot explain how hard that is to see and not be able to take her pain away.

'She has so much of her childhood left but it has now been tarnished by this person who thought it was OK to talk to her like this and send her such obscene things.'

The crushed parent added that though Bean's jailing would not bring the family's suffering to an end, he vowed to 'do my best to be there for my daughter' and 'help her however I can'.

The court heard Bean's vile behaviour with the girl included sending her child abuse videos and photos of his penis, as well as encouraging her to perform sex acts on herself.

He also talked about rape, saying he would carry on even if told to stop, and asked her to recruit her friends into watching him having sex and masturbating.

The young girl later told police she had deleted some of their messages because she thought she would be in trouble.

At the time, Bean was already under investigation for grooming three other underage girls on Snapchat - one of whom was said to be living in Germany - as well as making indecent images.

Prosecutor Paul Valder told the court he had also asked one victim, who was later identified by police through her school uniform, to call him a 'pervert' and told another 13-year-old girl he wanted to make her pregnant.

Following his initial arrest in August last year, the sex offender claimed his accounts had been hacked and accessed by others.

He also said a friend had regular use of his phone and denied any knowledge of the 24 child abuse images found on the device, including one depicting a victim as young as 12 months old.

However, after the abuse of the 10-year-old came to light in July this year, he later admitted four offences of sexual communication with a child, four of making indecent images, two of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

Shanda McAteer, defending, told the court Bean didn't offer any excuse for his offending and had shown genuine remorse.

Telling the court of his 'struggles' to explain why he did what he did, Ms McAteer added: 'He was suffering from very low mood and social isolation, was having difficulty opening up to his family [about] how he was feeling, and turned to the internet to communicate with others and then these offences have occurred.

'He doesn't attempt to excuse what he did in any way at all, and has now heard the impact of his actions.'

Bean, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for five-and-a-half years by Judge Simon James, who told the paedo he'd used the internet to pursue his sexual interest in children.

Though he accepted Bean's poor mental health may have contributed to making his 'reckless' choices, Judge James said he 'struggled to comprehend' how it could be argued that there was a direct link between his depression and 'seeking to incite children to engage in sexual activity'.

On the 'obvious, profound impact' on the 10-year-old girl and her family, Judge James added: 'Children, and indeed parents, are entitled to look to the courts for protection from adults seeking to sexually exploit, abuse and corrupt children over the internet.'

Judge James also remarked the disparity in age between Bean and his victims', together with his pretence of being a child to gain their trust, were both significant aggravating features.

On release, Bean will be subject to indefinite sex offender notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order.