Croydon rapist offered young children on Telegram pedophile chat weeks after being deemed ‘ready for release’

After serving over half of his sentence for rape, Tyler Charter left prison and returned to live in Croydon in May 2022. He was deemed ready for release by the parole board. But within weeks, one of south London’s most prolific criminals shared thousands of horrific images of child abuse and offered young children for rape with other sick pedophiles.

By 28 September 2022, the National Crime Agency and officers from the Met’s online child exploitation team had picked up on the 35-year-old’s warped internet activities and came through the front door to make an arrest.

Charter – described as having “zero impulse control” by the judge – tried to destroy evidence but police were able to seize his phone. This later proved crucial. After spending 18 months on remand in prison, Charter was charged in April with arranging a child sexual offense and nine other offenses for distributing and possessing indecent images of children. After pleading guilty at a preliminary hearing, the perverted coward hid behind a blue mask and Rasta hat as he was jailed for six years and six months at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday (May 23).

READ MORE: London pedophile teacher calls child sex abuse ‘fun for everyone’ and refuses to apologise

Ahead of his sentencing, MyLondon spoke to the woman responsible for Charter’s downing. Detective Nikki Jones began by outlining Charter’s criminal record, listing offenses for possession of a firearm, rape, sexual assault, exposure, criminal damage, assault and threats to kill, then explained how he had breached his notification requirements failing to state where he lived. .

After an empty raid on his address, police redirected to a partner’s house, where Charter did not mention the presence of a seven-year-old boy. Charter’s partner was “quite hostile and aggressive”, DC Jones said, as his music blasted in the background. When police moved in to arrest him, DC Jones said Charter became “extremely violent” and tried to throw his phone.

After a 15-minute struggle to restrain him, Charter was handcuffed and taken to the station for an interview. There, DC Jones said, Charter remained quiet but aggressive.

“He hit it a few times and we had to stop the interview to calm him down,” she recalled. “He is a very hostile man.”

That assessment was confirmed at Thursday’s court hearing, where Charter obstructed the judge’s view of him by insisting on wearing a surgical mask and woolen hat in an empty video conference room. When the judge asked her to remove her face covering, she simply grabbed the TV remote control and turned off the camera.

Pedophile arranged to pay a woman to abuse 3 children

Unsurprisingly, Charter refused to cooperate with the investigation or hand over the PIN to the police. It took experts a while to get into the phone, but when they did, it revealed a collection of images and a set of messages that recorder Samantha Presland called “the worst conversations I’ve ever had to I condemn and I had the misfortune to read them”.

Thousands of indecent images were recovered, all of which had to be classified by DC Jones. An unenviable but important task in determining whether the level of illegality is determined by Parliament. Category A, the worst, includes acts of penetration, Category B includes sexual activity, and Category C includes provocative poses and sexual positions.

“After looking at his phone, most of them were pre-pubescent children (…) most of them Category A,” DC Jones explained. Disturbing searches were also discovered, showing Charter’s interest in “incest”, “infant sex”, “prepubescent”, “small babies”, “rape” and “pedo”. The court heard that the total number of such searches was well over a thousand.

The most serious crime, however, was reserved for a Telegram chat full of pedophiles, where Charter arranged for him and another user, “Hypervolt”, to pay a woman for the use of three children. The “aunt”, the court was told, offered a 17-year-old, five-year-old and three-year-old for Charter and his online friend to rape and abuse, in exchange for money.

The children have never been identified and it is unclear if Charter ever carried out the plan, but alarmingly, the messages detailing the rape plan were exchanged on June 5, 115 days before he was arrested. On Thursday, prosecutor Will Noble said: “There was no evidence in this case whether the arrangement was completed. We just don’t know.”

“There is a high chance that they will commit crimes”

After hacking the phone and discovering the conversation, DC Jones went to HMP Littlehey, a Cat C prison in Cambridgeshire, to interview Charter again. This time he used his voice but made no comment. It made no difference to him, however, as police had enough evidence to charge him with six counts of distributing indecent images, three counts of possessing indecent images and one count of arranging to commit a child sex offense .

“This is basically a very dangerous individual,” DC Jones told MyLondon. “If he is released, there is a high chance that he will commit crimes. He was released in May 2022 and started sharing images in June.”

Detective Inspector Peter Harvey, from the same team as DC Jones, said someone like Charter would remain under close police scrutiny long after his release. As well as a restraining order to prevent sexual harm, which means he must declare any children he intends to live with, notification requirements mean he must report to the police regularly and receive regular visits.

But at a time when pressure on the prison population may see indecent image offenders spared immediate custody, DI Harvey reassured the public that he is focusing on going after known criminals. “Sometimes there’s a disparity. Some people might be avoiding jail who should really be in jail. But for us it’s about ongoing risk management,” he said.

He also acknowledged there was ongoing concern about threats from new technologies, but insisted the Met’s high-tech crime unit “will find a way in”. In the Charter case, police were unable to identify the other members of the Telegram chat, including the user who wanted to pay for the use of young children.

“Clear desire to kidnap and rape”

Charter, wearing a blue Puma tracksuit, clutched a thick wad of paper and took notes as he appeared via video link from HMP Littlehey on Thursday. A wire beard sprouted from the edges of his mask, and a black hat with red, yellow, and green stripes sat tightly above his thick brow. He spoke only to confirm his name and appeared unmoved as the gruesome details were heard.

In total, 951 Cat A images were found on his phone and several thousand more in the lower categories. The Telegram logs, in which he sent the images to similar predators, were mainly about the abuse of very young boys. Here he also arranged the rape of two very young children and a 17-year-old, in messages described by the prosecution.

“He detailed where they lived, how (the aunt) would be paid and for others to participate,” Mr Noble said. “Mr Charter also detailed what he would do to the children when he was there, including filming. Although not the subject of a specific accusation, but also within the correspondence there is a clear sexual desire to find, kidnap and rape (a child). ).”

Mr Noble also pointed to Charter’s previous record, including for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 2014. “He has no impulse control and other human beings are objects to him,” Recorder Presland said, suggesting its danger to him. public.

But the judge said her decision was difficult given the “Schrodinger’s cat” scenario she faced in determining how far the planned rape of three children had gone. If Charter had been stopped by police on the doorstep, she suggested his sentence would be 12 years or more, but absent that case her powers were limited.

Defense attorney Anthony Waller urged her to sentence his client based on a vaguely defined plan. “There is no evidence to suggest a definitive arrangement,” Mr Waller argued. “In the conversation between Hypervolt and this defendant, there is no reference to any incident. There is a complete absence of any sign that anything has happened.

“He must be sentenced on the basis that there was no harm, and therefore it attracts a reasonable downward adjustment in sentence.” Recorder Presland was convinced and told Mr Waller he would make “a substantial reduction from a substantial sentence”.

“He is an extremely dangerous man”

Jailing him for six-and-a-half years, with a further five years on extended licence, Recorder Presland explained that the offenses had just missed a change in the law which could have given him greater sentencing powers. In the circumstances, she was limited to a maximum of 14 years, with a 50 percent reduction in the absence of more evidence of the arrangement to rape the children.

“I’ve read the pre-sentence report and I’m frankly amazed at the speed with which he fell down a rabbit hole of sharing images, not just owning images,” the judge said. “I find the personality disorder, everything in his past, his complete lack of empathy, the nature of the crime (rape) … makes me deeply concerned that he is an extremely dangerous man.

“All his offenses indicate that he is aggressive and violent. He has no concept of other beings having boundaries or the right to defend themselves. I have absolutely no doubt that he is dangerous and I believe he needs an extended period of license .”

Charter was already on the sex offenders register for life following his rape conviction and is now subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order restricting his contact with children and use of the internet.

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