A 65-YEAR-OLD man who directed the sexual abuse of children in the Philippines has been jailed for 19 years and six months.

Malcolm Tayler, of Spencer Street, Northwich, was sentenced at Chester Crown on Friday, December 13.

He was jailed for 19 years and six months and given a further four years on licence after pleading guilty to a total of 21 charges.

They included 15 counts of facilitating the commission of child sex offences, three counts of downloading indecent images, two counts of possession of prohibited images of a child and possession of 31 extreme pornographic images.

On 27 February 2018 a warrant was executed at Tayler’s previous address on Bromley Road, Congleton, after officers received intelligence to suggest that he was involved in the streaming of illegal videos.

Officer seized his two computers and discovered that he was in possession of a total of 162 indecent images of children and 31 extreme pornographic images.

They also found that he had distributed 12 indecent images of children via Skype.

In addition, between May 2014 and August 2017 Tayler paid for at least 15 live streams of children engaging in sexual acts in the Philippines.

Not only did he watch children be forced to perform the acts, he told the abusers what acts to make them perform.

Tayler visited the Philippines and Thailand during the same period.

When interviewed by officers Tayler admitted that he had watched live streams of child sexual abuse.

He also confessed that he was aware that the victims were children prior to watching the live streams – with some of them being as young as four years old.

Detective Constable Dave Walton said: “I welcome the sentence handed to Tayler and I hope that it acts as a deterrent to others.

“Tayler knew that what he was doing was wrong, but he thought he could get away with it because it was all online and there were no witnesses to his offending.

“However, this case highlights the fact that everyone using the internet leaves a digital footprint and that no matter how hard offenders try to hide it the evidence will always catch up with them in the end.”

The judge ruled that Tayler has to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

Tayler was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.