A paedophile who was talking to children on TikTok while claiming to be 16 was caught with indecent photos on his phone.

Zack Webb, 40, was caught with 20 indecent photos of children when police turned up at his home in Violet Road in August 2022 and seized an SD card and a Samsung mobile phone.

Southampton Crown Court heard they found one Category A moving image – the most severe category - as well as nine Category B images and 10 Category C.

They also found evidence of a TikTok account in the name of Lucky Jack which contained chats with children.

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Prosecutor Lucy Taylor said that although the chats were not sexual in nature, they appeared to show Webb pretending to be 16 years old.

No images were found on the seized SD card, and this was returned.

Two years on from the visit, he pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children earlier this month.

Speaking at his sentencing hearing at Southampton Crown Court on Tuesday, Recorder Simon Levene told him: “As I am sure you know, what you got up to was part of a worldwide industry exploiting children and causing a great deal of unhappiness to them.”

He added that these are “serious offences”.

But Christopher Gaiger, mitigating, asked the judge to follow the recommendation by the probation service to impose a community-based penalty.

Southampton Crown CourtSouthampton Crown Court

The court also heard how this is Webb’s first offence and that he is currently in employment.

Recorder Levene added: “It seems clear to me that with the help of the probation service you are not going to re-offend, or at any right, the chance of your reoffending would be reduced.

“I am not going to impose a sentence of imprisonment. I am going to follow the recommendation in the pre-sentence report.”

Webb received a two-year community order and must complete 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 100 hours of unpaid work.

He must also pay £250 court costs at the rate of £50 a month and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements for the next five years.

The prosecutor said she is unsure why it took so long for the case to get to court, noting a two-year gap between the offending and the sentencing hearing.