An Essex man who made payments to livestream and direct the sexual abuse of children in the Philippines has been jailed for 15 years.
Cesar Cordero Conejo, 39, from Ilford, was investigated by National Crime Agency officers, after being identified by international law enforcement agencies as a UK-based offender obtaining child sexual abuse material and live-streamed child sexual abuse from a Filipino woman.
Information regarding Conejo, from between September 2022 and February 2023, was provided to the UK. This included a number of message exchanges between him and the woman, which were provided by Homeland Security in the US.
In one message, she tells Conejo that she is giving birth but doesn’t have money to go to the hospital, to which he replies: “Well good luck ok, hope you have another girl.” Later in the chat, he asked her to get the children to carry out sex acts on each other.
In further messages, Conejo indicated that he wanted to travel to the Philippines to rape one of the children himself, saying that he’d pay the woman 100 dollars a day in return.
NCA investigators arrested Conejo in July 2023 and conducted searches of his home, seizing a number of devices, including a laptop and phone. Forensic examination of the devices revealed they contained in excess of 12,500 indecent images of children, including 4,706 in the most severe category A.
Further chat records between him and various Filipino women dating back six years were also identified. One message stated: “Do you have PayPal darling. I wanted to see your daughter today.”
Financial enquiries showed that he had sent a number of Filipino women a total of £1,300 over the course of six years. At least sixteen of these payments were linked to one woman who abused children known to her, for financial gain.
A number of child victims were rescued and safeguarded in the Philippines, including three in relation to this case.
These three children would have been aged between five and thirteen at the time of the offending. The imagery obtained from the Filipino woman included category A images (the most severe) involving penetration with a number of objects, and oral rape. The youngest rape victim was only 2-3 years old and was directed to perform sexual acts with others.
In custody, he was charged with causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 13. He was later charged with further counts of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, offences relating to making indecent images of children, possessing indecent images of children and possessing an extreme pornographic image.
He pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 4 January and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at the same court today (17 October). He will also become a Registered Sex Offender for life and was given a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
NCA Operations Manager Jen Cruickshank said: “This was a horrific case which is shocking on so many levels.
“Not only did Conejo orchestrate the most depraved abuse imaginable on vulnerable children, purely for his own sexual pleasure, he displayed his intentions to travel to the Philippines to carry out these attacks personally.
“He is a dangerous, high-harm offender who posed a significant risk to children.
“The fact they were on the other side of the world probably hadn’t escaped his attention, and no doubt made him think he’d avoid detection.
However, the NCA has the capabilities and international reach to ensure that offenders like Conejo don’t escape justice.
