Sunderland paedophile jailed again after he is caught with 'foul and depraved' images of children and babies

Martin Thompson – who is now said to be “embarrassed and ashamed” by his behaviour – was snared while trying to meet a teenage boy for sex in June 2025.

He had been communicating with an online profile purporting to belong to a 14-year-old boy.

But he was unaware that he was actually exchanging sexual messages with an undercover police officer.

Newcastle Crown Court has heard that when police arrested Thompson they also found a trove of more than 200 indecent images of children, many of the most serious kind depicting babies as young as five months old being abused.

Thompson was also caught with extreme porn videos, some of which he distributed to other paedophiles, telling them he was “into 13 and under”.

Prosecuting, Kevin Wardlaw told the court Thompson was convicted in 2005 for assaulting a child under 14 and for having sex with a child under 13.

He served three-and-a-half years in prison.

Defending, Nick Lane said Thompson, 42, of Lichfield Road, Southwick, in Sunderland, is “embarrassed and ashamed” by his behaviour and recent offending.

He admitted seven new offences including attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and possession of an extreme pornographic image.

Judge Thomas Moran sentenced Thompson to three-and-a-half years in prison and ordered him to sign the sex offenders' register.

Judge Moran said: “Some of the images are of the most foul and unspeakably depraved kind.”