A sex offender who shared explicit photographs with a schoolboy has been jailed.
Stewart Mee, aged 55, used a social media account to make contact with the boy on 4 July 2020.
Despite being made aware of the boy’s true age he continued to make sexually explicit suggestions.
Nottinghamshire Police were made aware of the messages in November of the same year and arrested Mee on suspicion of a range of offences.
Forensic examination of his phone and laptop revealed several hundreds more images of child sexual abuse.
Some of the images were graded as category A – depicting the most serious offences that can be committed against children.
When he was interviewed by specialist officers, Mee, of Festival Avenue, Harworth, admitted to sending the messages but claimed to be unsure of the boy’s age.
He later pleaded guilty to inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity, engaging in sexual communication with a child, and three counts of making indecent images of a child.
Mee also admitted to possessing a prohibited image of a child and possessing extreme pornography.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday he was jailed for two years and ten months.
He was also added to the sex offenders’ register and made the subject of a sexual harm reduction order which will tightly restrict his behaviour when he is released.
Sergeant John Whitworth, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Mee sought to exploit a vulnerable child for his own sexual gratification and has quite rightly been sent to jail.
“Nothing is more important to us than keeping children safe from harm. In reality that means protecting them from people like Mee who can case them a huge amount of harm without even meeting them face-to-face.
“I hope this case serves as a warning to others who think they can use the internet to exploit and abuse children in Nottinghamshire. We will find you, we will expose you and we will see you put behind bars.”
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