A man from north Essex will spend five years in prison for several offences including sexual activity with a young child.

Clacton resident Jason Cowie, 45, of Oxford Crescent, was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court on Friday, November 9 after he was found to have incited a girl aged under-13 to engage in sexual activity with no penetration.

Cowie was also found guilty of five counts of making indecent photographs of children, and one count of distributing similar images after over 150 indecent images of children were found on his computer and hard drive.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and given a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Detective Constable Jenna McQueen, of the Essex Police Online Investigation Team was pleased to see the paedophile put behind bars.

She said: “Cowie continuously denied any charges put to him, despite the clear evidence our team had uncovered.

“Our work is to protect the most vulnerable members of society, and he continued to exploit and harm children, thinking he was safe in doing so from a computer in his bedroom.

“My team will continue to work tirelessly to bring perpetrators like Cowie to justice, and I am pleased that he will spend time in prison for his abhorrent actions.”

Officers from the Essex Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT) searched Carrie’s home on March 17, 2017, following intelligence that he had viewed indecent images of children.

Cowie was subsequently arrested on suspicion of making indecent images of children.

He was then bailed whilst his computer and hard drive were forensically examined.

It was discovered that Cowie had made a total of 159 indecent photographs of children. 48 of the images were from Category A, with a further 61 from Category B and 50 from Category C.

Officers also uncovered three Skype accounts and found chat logs which continued to detail Cowie’s sexual interest in children.

There was one incident where he had shared a Category B video with another Skype user.