A ‘dangerous and repugnant’ paedophile living in Odsey has been jailed for a string of child sexual abuse offences.

Roger Vye admitted the charges of attempted rape of a child under the age of 13, two counts of assault of child under 13 by penetration, sexual assault of a child under 13, arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex offence distributing indecent photographs of child/children, making indecent photographs of children, possessing extreme pornographic images and possessing prohibited images of children.

He pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment, with a further five years on extended licence at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday last week. The 55-year-old has also been issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which includes preventing him associating with any child under the age of 18 and he will be subject to Sex Offender Registration for life.

Vye – who previously lived in Dover in Kent – was arrested on October 22, 2019 at a location in London having arranged to sexually abuse a young child.

A subsequent search was conducted at an address in Odsey and electronic devices were seized and submitted for forensic analysis.

The analysis confirmed the presence of a large collection of indecent images of children and also confirmed that Vye had a long-standing interest in the sexual abuse of children. Vye had distributed some of these images to other offenders online.

Also recovered was evidence linking Vye to the historic sexual abuse of a child who had been subjected to a prolonged period of abuse which occurred in 2009 and 2010 in the Kent area.

Detective Constable Jonathan Booty, of the Metropolitan Police’s Online Child Abuse and Exploitation team, said: “Firstly I would like to thank the victim for speaking with us, and their bravery and fortitude shown throughout. Roger Vye is a dangerous and repugnant individual who will now face a significant period away from the general public.

“Vye used social media to enable him to obtain thrills, discussing with other people around the world the horrific abuse of children.

“He was also partaking in the abuse and was clearly an active offender. The Met will continue to relentlessly pursue online offenders. “Vye may have more victims, and I would urge any other potential victims to come forward and contact police as soon as possible.”

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Vye’s history of extremely harmful behaviour shows an alarming indifference to the wellbeing of children.

“Thanks to the bravery shown by a survivor of horrendous child sexual abuse, he has been brought to justice.

“We want those who have endured these offences to know they will be listened to when they speak out, regardless of how many years have passed since their ordeals took place, or who the abuser is.

“They can speak in confidence to trained counsellors at the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000, while Childline is there for young people on 0800 1111 or www.childline.org.uk.”

Anyone with information of a potential victim is asked to contact DC Jonathan Booty via 101. Alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously via 0800 555 111.

Anyone who has any information that could help protect a child from online abuse, is asked to call 999, or alternatively contact the NSPCC or Internet Watch Foundation.