A COUNTY man who ordered a mother to sexually abuse her own daughter and then send him pictures to prove she had carried his vile demands has been jailed for more than three years.

Jamie Shiel made contact with the woman on the Kik messenger app and instructed her to strip her daughter naked and to carry out sex acts on her.

Shiel, 23, also admitted other offences involving the child too graphic to disclose in the Courier.

Shiel, of Ashgrove, Musselburgh, had also downloaded hundreds of child abuse images to his phone and then distributed some of the pictures to others online.

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A sheriff described Shiel’s behaviour as “sickening and degrading” as he jailed him for 37 months and placed him on the sex offenders' register for life during a court hearing this week.

Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss said: “I assess your level of culpability as really high and I also assess the level of harm to the child in charges four, five and seven as really high.

“To encourage a mother to abuse her own daughter is both sickening and degrading, and I have no doubt you have caused harm to the victims and that harm may well be long-lasting.

“There is no other appropriate method of dealing with you other than a custodial sentence.”

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that police raided Shiel’s home after receiving information he had uploaded indecent images of children to a Snapchat account in July 2022.

Shiel was present with his mother and father when police arrived and an initial search of his phone showed he had downloaded about 50 indecent images of children aged between two and 12.

Fiscal depute Oliver Davidson-Richards said that hundreds of images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of young male and female victims were subsequently found on the device.

The court also heard that Shiel had shared indecent images of children to several accounts he was in contact with on the Kik messenger app in March and April 2022.

Sexual messages

Mr Davidson-Richards said that police officers then discovered Shiel had been sending sexual messages and images of his genitals to six children he was in contact with on social media site Snapchat.

Chat logs showed that Shiel had ordered one victim to send him indecent images of herself and to carry out graphic sex acts.

The court was told that the offender was also in contact with the girl’s mother and he had demanded she sexually molest her daughter and send him images to prove she had done so in April 2022.

Shiel pleaded guilty to five offences when he appeared at the Capital court last month and he returned to the dock for sentencing on Tuesday.

Shiel pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and to distributing indecent images of children to others at his home, all between July 2021 and July 2022.

He also admitted sending sexual images and sexual written communication to people he believed were six children aged between 13 and 16 between February and July 2022.

Shiel pleaded guilty to intentionally causing someone he believed to be a child aged between 13 and 16 to participate in sexual activity on various occasions between February 10 and June 30, 2022.

And he admitted a fifth offence of, while acting with another, engaging in sexual activity with someone he believed to be a child aged between 13 and 16 on April 14, 2022.