A MAN who admitted distributing depraved videos of children being raped has been jailed.

Chloe Dunn, 19, received ‘sick and perverted’ indecent moving images involving youngsters aged under five after she messaged Sheldon Bateson that she wanted to see disturbing images.

Dunn, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, went on to engage in explicit online exchanges with Bateson, 29, from Nelson, in which they referred to wanting to have sex with children.

Bateson, of Fulham Street, was jailed for three years and four months after he pleaded guilty at Burnley Crown Court to distributing and possessing indecent images.

But Dunn, who admitted receiving some images, was handed a suspended sentence after Judge Beverley Lunt ruled it was ‘not appropriate’ to send her to immediate custody.

Judge Lunt pointed out there was currently no sex offender treatment programmes for women, which she labelled ‘short-sighted’.

Dunn, of Eastern Road, received an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register. She was also told to attend a Women’s Programme, described by the Ministry of Justice as a ‘cognitive and motivational programme’.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said the pair exchanged messages via the WhatsApp service in April 2014.

Bateson sent her six moving images, classed in the most serious category of indecent images, of children being raped.

Mr Parker said they talked about their desire to meet and have sex with children.

Their exchanges were uncovered when Bateson’s phone was sold at a second-hand shop in his hometown last November. The buyer handed the phone to police after he found the images.

Bob Elias, defending Bateson, told the court: “This was fantasy roleplay by the defendants .”

Bateson was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register and was given a sexual harm prevention order, restricting contact with children and the internet.