Hartlepool university student spared jail 'by narrowest of margins' after exchanging intimate selfies with 15-year-old school girl

Jaxon Amos, 21, from Hartlepool, avoided jail by “the narrowest or margins” at Teesside Crown Court.

Amos, who is in the first year of a five-year course in architecture at Teesside University, told Judge Christopher Smith in a letter that his actions had destroyed his family’s life.

The court heard was sucked into the dark world of the internet after watching adult material because of his own sexual inexperience.

Police seized seven devices when they raided the family home on May 5 last year.

They found hundreds of illegal images of children Amos had downloaded between January 2018 and May last year with 427 images at the most serious level, 237 at the next and 133 at the lowest.

They included a number of moving images including a video lasting one hour and 41 minutes.

Amos, who had no previous convictions, had also shared seven images with another man after asking him what his preferences were.

There was also a conversation between Amos and a person who said that she was aged 15 and they exchanged intimate selfies.

When interviewed by police, he said he had downloaded the images but never looked at them.

Amos admitted three offences of making indecent images of children, two of distributing indecent images and attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child.

Prosecutor Shaun Dryden said: “He said he was disgusted by what he had done.”

His actions had a significant impact on his family, said Uzma Khan defending.

She said an immediate prison sentence would place him with older offenders and would damage his prospects of rehabilitation.

Amos of Alliance Street, Hartlepool, was sentenced to two years in jail, which was suspended for 18 months, with 40 rehabilitation days, including sex offender’s treatment.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years, given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and must complete 150 hours unpaid work.

Judge Smith told him: “It is by the narrowest of margins that you have escaped going to prison today.”

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