A PERVERT who encouraged a man to sexually abuse children, including a baby, has been jailed.

At Manchester Crown Court Damen Scott was imprisoned for 21 years by Judge Anthony Cross QC after he was found guilty of 17 counts of child sexual offences.

Scott, of Ashawe Terrace, Little Hulton, was ordered to sign the sexual offenders register for life and has also been issued with a lifelong sexual harm prevention order.

The court heard how, on May 30 2017, Surrey police raided the house of a man man and seized a number of devices.

Examination of the equipment revealed online communication between the man and Scott in which the man sent a number of images of children to Scott.

Then, on October 26 the same year, Greater Manchester Police received information from West Midlands Police informing them that Scott had been using a messaging service to talk graphically about child sexual abuse with a second man.

Scott had been encouraging this man to carry out acts of child sexual abuse and share the indecent images with him.

On November 2 police raided Scott's Little Hulton home and seized multiple mobile phones. When they were analysed officers found indecent images of children.

Detective Chief Inspector Judith Holmes, from GMP’s Public Protection division, said: “The severity of this case should not be underestimated.

"Scott is a prolific paedophile who repeatedly encouraged the abuse of vulnerable children – one of which was a baby.

“I would like to thank the team of dedicated officers as well as our colleagues in other forces across the country, whose hard work and commitment has been instrumental in achieving today’s result. I want to reassure the people of Greater Manchester that tackling the exploitation of children is a priority for GMP and we will do everything within our power to keep our children safe.

For anyone who is thinking of engaging in this type of sinister criminal behaviour — we will find you and we will bring you to justice.

“Sexual abuse can have a devastating impact on children, and it is important that you report any suspicious activity no matter how minor you may think this is to police immediately.”

Through the It’s Not Okay campaign, which was launched in 2013, Greater Manchester Police works to protect children at risk of sexual exploitation, to prevent it from happening and target those responsible.

Multi agency co-located teams are in every borough across Greater Manchester.