Paedophile facing long jail term after abusing children in Philippines

A paedophile who filmed himself abusing girls as young as eight years old on a trip to the Philippines is facing years in jail.

Trevor Monk, 47, gave "facilitators" thousands of pounds for access to the children during a two-week holiday to the Far East in the spring of 2014.

Between December 2010 and November 2014 he also transferred a total of £14,740 via Western Union to accounts in the Philippines in exchange for live streams of the abuse of young girls.

The Old Bailey heard last week that he claimed the payments were not in exchange for the indecent videos, but because he knew the children were living in poor conditions and wanted them to be able to eat.

Monk also confessed to flying to the Philippines, but said this was to visit his "girlfriends".

The court heard he told officers he first met one of the female facilitators - Janet - online when "she was sending him live shows of her abusing children".

Prosecutor Timothy Probert-Wood said: "This case stems from an investigation into the sellers and buyers of child abuse material in the Philippines.

"The defendant's email address was identified as being an alleged purchaser of such material and as a result was arrested."

At the time of his arrest the former machine operator admitted he had downloaded what he described as "child exploitation pictures".

Mr Probert-Wood added that examination of computers, external hard drives and memory cards found at Monk's home revealed tens of thousands of indent images and video of children, and evidence that he had himself molested young girls in the Philippines.

Just one of the computers contained evidence of more than 43,000 indecent images of children.

Records of Yahoo chat logs revealed negotiation of payments between Monk and the women in the Philippines. In one discussion he told the woman "£1,500 for the girl, £500 for you".

In another he even expressed his disappointment at not getting what had been agreed.

Mr Probert-Wood said: "Monk was requesting footage of live shows, but was in fact being sent pre-recorded video of child abuse that he had already seen. He complains of being taken advantage of in that regard."

The court heard details of some of the images Monk was sent, one of which included a girl aged around seven to 10 years pulling her top down and holding a sign saying "for you James" - the name that he used in his email address to chat.

Using the messaging service, Monk also arranged to meet up with his facilitators and young girls when he visited the Philippines between March 23 2014 and April 4 2014.

On March 31 2014 he asks a woman if he would be allowed to "f***" the girl she is to provide for him, to which she replies "the sky is the limit".

However, later that day he sends a frustrated message claiming to have been lied to, as the girl was 16 and on her period, and not 13 and willing to participate in whatever he wanted.

He tells the woman: "You should be ashamed - you gave me lies about touching and f******".

During the same trip Monk filmed a number of girls aged in their early teens touching themselves and can even be heard in the footage encouraging them to do so.

One of the videos Monk filmed and directed showed an adult female molesting a girl under the age of 13.

Mr Probert-Wood said: "In interview Monk said he thought the female was the child's mother."

Monk of Cornelia Place, in Erith, Kent, has pleaded guilty to one count each of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and sexual assault of a child under 13.

He further admitted two counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, six counts of causing a child to engage in a sexual act, one count of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, three counts of making indecent photographs of children and three counts of possessing indecent photographs of children.

Judge Anuja Dhir QC will sentence Monk from 9.30am at the Old Bailey.