A "feeble" paedophile "hit rock bottom" and asked an undercover police officer: "Got any d*** pics bro?"
Darren D'Cruze's lewd chatroom messages led to the discovery of his stash of hundreds of indecent images, including films showing boys and girls aged as young as three being raped. He was also caught sharing such depraved materials with fellow perverts for a second time, having sent a vile video to a contact over WhatsApp.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Monday, that the 26-year-old contacted another account on RandoChat on the morning of May 4 last year. But, despite being told that the other user was a 13-year-old boy, D'Cruze asked: "You got any d*** pics bro?"
READ MORE: The nine hours in which Leslie Garrett brought 'terror, fear and mayhem' to the city
READ MORE: Vicar who sexually abused boy was fined £500 and then promoted
Christopher Taylor, prosecuting, described how the profile had actually been set up by an undercover police officer, with no child having in fact existed. But the messages led to a search warrant being executed at his home on Fairclough Road in Huyton in October 2023.
When D'Cruze's phone was seized and analysed, it was found to contain 134 pictures and four videos in category A - those depicting the most serious forms of abuse. These included files showing children estimated to be aged between three and five being raped.
He was also found to have downloaded 51 photographs and one video in category B, 138 category C images and 192 extreme p*rnographic images over the course of around a year. D'Cruze had meanwhile shared one category B video with a contact known as "Andy" via WhatsApp.
Under interview, he "indicated that he knew he should have stopped and had no explanation to the officers why he did not". The defendant also "accepted an ongoing sexual attraction to children".
D'Cruze previously received a 12-month imprisonment suspended for two years in 2016 for offences including distributing indecent images of children, committed as a 17-year-old youth. Tom Watson, defending, told the court today: "It is a terribly sad case - the defendant has committed serious crimes here, and he knows that.
"One doesn't have to spend long with him to gain a clear impression that he is perhaps, in many ways, quite a vulnerable individual. For want of a better word, and I do not want to offend him, his outward appearance is quite feeble.
"He can educate himself or be educated about the impact of this sort of offending and the fact that in each photograph is a real victim. He can spout it back, but it did not change his lifestyle or attitude.
"It did plainly change his lifestyle and attitude, but he hit rock bottom. He was in a steady relationship for about seven years.
"He was also working for a composting firm, which was work he enjoyed. But his relationship ended abruptly and he also lost his employment.
"He knew his mental health was deteriorating and he should have sought help. He is deeply embarrassed about this, as well as ashamed.
"He knows and recognises that he has a problem. He knows and recognises that there is an inappropriate and unhealthy sexual attraction as far as children are concerned.
"What happened here is there has been a collapse in his mental health. There has been a downward spiral, resulting in protective factors not being there."
D'Cruze admitted attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, distributing indecent images of children, possession of indecent images, three counts of making indecent images and possession of extreme p*rnographic images. He bowed his head and closed his eyes as he was jailed for 30 months.
Sentencing, Judge Katherine Pierpoint said: "The conversation was persistent, and you sought to persuade him to send that photo to you. Found on your phone were a large number of indecent images of children and extreme p*rnographic images.
"These are images showing the rape of children, images which would cause disgust to any right minded person. These pictures you had on your phone represent the abuse of children.
"Not only did you possess these images, you also distributed them - which is something, similarly, you did in the past. You know how seriously the courts view such matters.
"I do not doubt that you are vulnerable and feeble, but you were willing to sit behind a screen over the course of a year causing great damage to others. It is through luck rather than design that the person you were communicating with was in fact an undercover officer.
"You were given the opportunity previously to address your offending behaviour, only to come back before these courts again.
"You are somebody who, at a time in your life where things started going wrong, turned to this kind of offending again. What this offending has shown is that you have shown an inability to control behaviour that you know is destructive and harmful.
"You have sought to exploit somebody you believe to be a child. I accept that you had a downward spiral in your mental health, but that is not an excuse."
D'Cruze was also handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will be required to sign the sex offenders' register for life.
Don't miss the biggest and breaking stories by signing up to the Echo Daily newsletter here
