Paedophile posed as teen on Tik Tok to groom girl, 10

A PAEDOPHILE groomed a 10-year-old girl who he met on TikTok, a court has heard.

- JASON EVANS

Thomas Winterson had hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse which he had shared with a like-minded individual, and had visited Russian websites known for hosting indecent images.

Newport Crown Court heard the 34-year-old defendant has a previous conviction for possessing indecent images, for which he was given a community order.

The bakery worker's barrister told the court Winterson had voluntarily sought help from a charity which works with sex offenders and was motivated to change.

The court heard that Winterson's behaviour came to light after he contacted a 10-year-old girl in the north of England on the video-sharing app TikTok. Pretending to be a 15-year-old boy, the defendant told the child she was pretty and asked if they could chat on Snapchat, offering her money for the popular online game platform Roblox.

The court heard that once on Snapchat Winterson asked the girl for pictures - the girl sent him some photos of herself and he responded by sending her pictures of his erect penis.

The girl called Winterson a “paedophile” and told her mother, who in turn reported the matter to police.