A 23-year-old man from Braintree has been jailed for five years for sexually assaulting a boy and taking, making and distributing indecent images of children,

Bradley Challis, of Lodge Lane, Braintree, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday, July 11, after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting a boy under the age of 13.

He had also admitted four counts of making, two counts of distributing and one count of taking an indecent image of a child,

On March 9 last year, Essex Police received information that an internet connection at an address in Braintree had been used to access indecent images of children.

A warrant was executed and Challis was arrested at the scene.

Officers discovered that Challis had accessed the property’s internet from his own home so a search of his address was carried out and computers, phones and a disc were taken away.

When interviewed, Challis admitted searching online forums for indecent images of children, from category A to C, over a period of three years.

He had also created his own online albums containing indecent images.

Police found that on two occasions he had photographed himself sexually assaulting a boy under 13.

Challis was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for one count of sexually assaulting a child and six months for one count of making indecent images of children, to run consecutively.

He was also given two years for sexually assaulting a child, 12 months for making indecent photographs of a child, six month sentences for three counts of making incident images and six and three month sentences for distributing indecent images – all to run concurrently.

Following sentencing, investigating officer Dc Kimberley Farrow, of Essex Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: “Bradley Challis accessed indecent images and went to extreme lengths for his own gratification, including using another property’s internet connection to view these sickening photographs.

“He also preyed and abused a young child before taking images of his despicable acts. Challis will now have time to think about the consequences of his actions in his prison cell.

“I want to praise the victim and their family for the courage they have shown throughout the investigation. I would also like to thank our Police Online Investigations Team who assisted us during our investigations.”