Paedophile jailed for 16 years for “sustained campaign” of abuse

A paedophile who paid money to watch children carrying out sexual acts has been jailed.

Peter Swan, 62, made approaches to women in the Philippines between 2015 and 2023 using social media and dating apps.

He offered them money in return for either a live stream or video of children carrying out sexual acts.

Pictured: Peter Swan, 62. 

In Skype messages with the women, Swan spoke about meeting up with them and their children.

Officers uncovered the exchanges as a result of a warrant at Swan’s home in Orton Malborne, Peterborough, in February 2023, prompted by him uploading an indecent image of a child to the internet.

Dell and Sony laptops and a Samsung phone were seized and found to contain almost 3,000 indecent images of children.

Swan was voluntarily interviewed and bailed with conditions but was arrested again in November 2023 after the Skype messages emerged.

He had continued to view indecent images online as well as use Skype to talk to women and Telegram to pay for indecent images and live streams and videos of children being abused.

On Wednesday (18 December), at Peterborough Crown Court, Swan, of Weatherthorn, Orton Malborne, Peterborough, was jailed for 16 years, having pleaded guilty to three counts of arranging/facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child under 13 and one count of arranging/facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child between 13 and 17.

He also admitted six counts of making indecent images of children and received no separate penalty for these offences. 

Judge Sean Enright said the sentences were rightly consecutive because “each child is a separate catastrophe.”

The judge added Swan carried out “a sustained campaign against children in a third-world country”, the like of which he had not seen before in court. 

PC Alex Cochrane said: “Swan shamefully offered vulnerable women money in return to watch children being sexually abused for his own perverted gratification.

“Protecting vulnerable people is a force priority and children will undoubtedly be safer with Swan behind bars.”

For more on child abuse, including how to spot the signs and report it, please visit the dedicated pages on the force website.