A judge has jailed a “dangerous and predatory” paedophile for 22 years after he arranged the livestreamed sexual abuse of a nine-year-old girl in the Philippines.
Paul Hopkins, 50, instructed the child’s mother during the abuse, with the young victim appearing to be under the influence of an unidentified substance, the court heard.
Hopkins paid 40 US dollars, about £30, for the livestream and invited a woman he believed was a British mother with a ten-year-old daughter he wanted to abuse to watch it with him. In reality, she was an undercover police officer.
The IT consultant tried to use his technical knowledge to conceal where he was, but investigators exposed him through what was described in court as an “incredible piece of policing”.
Officers arrested Hopkins at his home in Romsey, Hampshire, in March last year and seized electronic devices. They later discovered evidence that he had previously sexually abused a child as young as two, recording and sharing images of that abuse.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Hopkins wrote his username on a piece of paper and placed it on the child’s torso to mark the abuse images as his own, before “bragging” about them on dark web forums.
The abuse involving the girl in the Philippines took place more than once, with Hopkins paying the mother 40 US dollars for every half-hour session he spent online with them.
Prosecutor Rabin Govindarajah told the court it was “one of the most serious cases of child abuse that have come before the courts in recent times”.
Paul Hopkins has been jailed at Bournemouth Crown Court
After an investigation by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU), Hopkins admitted 25 child sex offences, including rape of a child and arranging/facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child.
He was jailed for 22 years, with an extended licence of eight years, made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to pay £2,000 prosecution costs.
Mr Govindarajah said: ‘He made it clear he had a number of sexual fantasies in relation to children, in particular mother and daughter.
‘He talked graphically about what he would want to do. He made it quite clear how he felt about young children.
‘His behaviour then elevated, he became more comfortable and he made a proposition of watching the live online abuse of a very young girl in the Philippines.
‘He made the arrangements, payment and asked the officer to watch the abuse while it was going on.
‘He wasn’t located in a traditional manner. He is an IT consultant, someone who is technically extremely proficient. He was using multiple VPNs, alias emails, it was quite difficult to locate him.
‘A number of devices were found, physical storage and online storage, terrabytes and terrabytes of information that had to be carefully analysed by police.’
John Dove, defending, said Hopkins had no previous offences and made prompt guilty pleas.
He said he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child himself and started offending during a ‘difficult time’ in his life when he was under a lot of work stress.
Mr Dove described him as ‘hard-working and industrious’ with high profile contracts in software architecture before developing his own software company in 2024.
He said: ‘Mr Hopkins is aware of the very extreme nature of his offending and the long-lasting impact it will have for all those involved. He asks me to express his extreme remorse for his offending and his regret for the impact.’
He told the court in the 16 months Hopkins had been on remand in prison he had got a job making t-shirts and become a Buddhist, as well as reading books on child sex offences to better understand the consequences of his actions.
Judge Jonathan Fuller said police had identified four men Hopkins had sent images to and said their ‘disturbing’ conversations revealed ‘deeply embedded paedophile tendencies’.
He said they were an ‘unpleasant read’ with all the men expressing a ‘grotesque pleasure’ in the abuse of young children.
Judge Fuller said: ‘You used differing messaging platforms and more than one identity as you moved from platform to platform . You were detection averse and internet sophisticated.
‘In your conversations with the undercover officer you invited her to join the group and take part. The police were then able to witness first hand what you were doing. Even for the hardened police officer it must have been upsetting.
‘I want to thank the officers for their hard work in detecting and capturing this very predatory man who is a danger. Their work is to be commended to the chief constable.’
DI Dave Wells from the Online Investigations Team at SWROCU described Hopkins as ‘the most dangerous sex offender my team has investigated’.
