A 51-year-old man has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for child abuse offenses, in what a judge described as unlike any case previously known to the court.

Andrew Thorne, from Bristol, was found guilty after pleading guilty to 18 offenses including sexual communications with a child, taking and making indecent photographs of a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

On Friday October 25, Bristol Crown Court heard how Thorne first came to the attention of police after concerns were raised about his use online, where he accessed child pornography material.

He was arrested by the Internet Child Abuse Team (ICAT) in Avon and Somerset on August 10 last year on suspicion of creating indecent images of children.

Following his arrest and subsequent interviews, a number of electronic devices were seized and examined. Through this examination, the extent of Thorne’s offending was discovered.

Using a pseudonym, Thorne had used online platforms to send messages to children, where he ordered children aged between six and 16 to engage in sexual activity on camera – officers discovered there was 182 individual victims.

Officers also discovered Thorne had downloaded hundreds of images, some showing sexual abuse of children as young as 18 months old.

He has also recorded himself following and upskirting women and children in public, with more than 200 cases between August 2022 and August 2023, taken across the UK and Europe.

Thorne was sentenced to 24 years in prison, serving a minimum term of 18 years before being eligible for parole.

If he passes the parole board he will serve the remainder of his sentence on license and a lifetime sexual harm prevention order is in force.

During sentencing, the presiding judge said the court “had never seen a case like this” and that “the number of victims was greater than the court had ever seen.”

The officer in charge of the case, investigating officer Lucy Hartill, said: “Thorne is a very dangerous individual who has repeatedly targeted children, the most vulnerable in society, both online and offline.

“He ordered children to engage in harmful sexual behavior that will undoubtedly have a profound effect on them for the rest of their lives, all for his own selfish desires.

“This has been a difficult and complex investigation, but the sentence demonstrates how seriously we take these matters and our constant work to bring offenders like this to justice. »