A “fully-fledged” Darlington Paedophile sex offender, Andrew Weir, who coerced youngsters online into engaging in sexual acts has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
Andrew Weir coerced a 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl into transmitting explicit images and observing him engage in sexual acts, as reported by Teesside Crown Court.
The 30-year-old individual from Darlington, Andrew Weir, accumulated a “nauseating” collection of tapes depicting the sexual assault of minors over a five-year span, as presented in court.
Andrew Weir confessed to attempting to involve the boy in sexual conduct but was convicted of soliciting the girl to engage in sexual actions, asserting that he was unaware of her age being 13.
Andrew Weir was 22 years old when he communicated with a youngster in Thailand via Skype from May to August 2016, stated prosecutor Paul Newcombe.
The dialogue rapidly escalated to a sexual nature, with Andrew Weir, impersonating a 15-year-old kid, soliciting photographs of the minor and threatening to “hack” the child’s phone should he fail to acquiesce, as presented in court.
From 2016 to 2021, Andrew Weir downloaded numerous obscene images and videos of children, including some in the most severe category involving 13-year-old girls, as presented in court.
In May 2022, Andrew Weir befriended a 13-year-old girl online and thereafter began to coerce her for photographs, stated Mr. Newcombe.
She eventually gave into his “persistent and increasingly intimidating” demands, the court heard, but he was arrested shortly after the girl’s parents discovered the messages.
In mitigation, Tony Davis said Andrew Weir, of Brignall Moor Crescent, lived an “isolated” life that revolved around making relationships online.
Judge Advocate Thomas Mitchell said by 2022 Andrew Weir was a “fully-fledged sex offender with a sexual interest in children” who had “done real harm”.
As well as making contact with children, he gathered a “collection of nauseating indecent images” of children, the judge added.
But, he said, a spell in prison for Andrew Weir with the monitoring and support of professionals would “likely change [Andrew Weir] for the better”.
The judge said “good [could] be done” with Andrew Weir but warned him any future similar behaviour would see his sentence being measured in decades.
Andrew Weir was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order restricting his use of internet-enabled devices and banning him from contacting children online indefinitely.
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