Couple 'worked as team' to sexually abuse children
Northumbria PoliceA "conniving" husband and wife who "worked as a team" to sexually abuse children have been jailed.
Kieron Lewis, 33, and Rebecca Bowey, 25, groomed their young victims for their own sexual gratification, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
One of their victims said the pair were "sick" and "frightening", with a judge calling them "cold and calculating" with a "shared deviant interest".
The couple, who were from Sunderland but latterly lived in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, admitted multiple child sex offences. Lewis, who also had a stash of more than 730 indecent images of children, was jailed for four years and 10 months, and Bowey for four years and one month.
Their offending against the children came to light when the National Crime Agency flagged an IP address linked to Lewis to Northumbria Police, prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw said.
Officers found evidence on Lewis' phone which led them to the victims, who had been too scared to report what happened, the court heard.
They also found 364 category A indecent images, the most serious level, 308 category B and 71 category C, the court heard.
'Shared chilling messages'
Police found multiple messages between the couple discussing abusing children, Wardlaw said.
One of the victims told the court they were "scared" to say anything and Bowey "encouraged me to believe the things we did together were secret".
They said the couple were "sick" and "frightening" and the pair's actions left them "with an unhealthy and distorted view of sex not based on consent and mutual respect".
The mother of another victim said she could "not put into words the fury" she felt when she found out what the couple had been doing.
She also said she "constantly worried" about what the impact on her "gentle bright" child would be in the long term.
Recorder Peter Makepeace KC praised the bravery of the victims for giving evidence, which he said should protect future children from Lewis and Bowey.
He said the paedophile pair were "working as a team" to abuse children and the messages between them were "chilling" and showed their "cold and calculating" plotting.
He said they had "connived" together and treated their victims as a "commodity".
The judge said the couple had a "shared deviant sexual interest" in children that was "equal, mutual and self-perpetuating", with a psychiatrist saying they had a "sense of validation" from each other which led to "an escalation in their shared desires".
Both admitted offences including causing a child to engage in sexual activity.
They were ordered to sign the sex offender register and comply with sexual harm prevention orders for life.
