In March 2023, specialist Met officers received information about Arif Azad, now 21, of Newham. Their investigation established that Azad had accessed nearly 6,000 indecent images of children online – 3,500 of which were identified as being in the most extreme category.

Officers also established that a number of the images in Azad’s possession had been sent to him by an unknown child with whom he had been communicating online.

PC Ella Rose, one of the Met’s Safeguarding officers, said: “Although there was no evidence that Azad had met with a child while committing these offences, he is undoubtedly a paedophile whose behaviour was becoming increasingly concerning.

“He was brought to justice thanks to the dedication of officers from the Online Child Sexual Abuse Exploitation Team. Their investigation was complex and difficult, and there will have been a personal cost for the officers involved in gathering such a large volume of disturbing evidence in order to ensure that Azad was made to answer for his crimes.”

On the day before his arrest, Azad had downloaded a ‘paedophile manual’ which gave advice on how to commit sexual offences against children as young as two months old. Evidence retrieved from Azad’s electronic devices also proved that he had communications online with children on multiple occasions.

Officers from the Met’s North East Online Child Sexual Abuse Exploitation Team led the investigation.

On 19 April 2024, Arif Azad was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court to four years’ imprisonment – two years for the making, distribution and possession of indecent images and another two years for engaging in sexual communication with a child and possession of the paedophile manual.

Azad, who had pleaded guilty at the same court on 25 October 2023, will be subject to Sex Offender Notification Requirements for life and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years.