Man jailed over baby abuse images

Craig King admitted sending the abuse pictures to others

A man who photographed himself sexually abusing a baby girl has been jailed for two years.

The images made by Craig King, 31, of Swinton, Salford, were found on a computer belonging to a man arrested as part of a nationwide abuse operation.

King admitted sexually assaulting a child under 13, two charges of making an indecent image of a child and two charges of distributing images.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard the girl was about 18 months old.

What King did to this young child is absolutely appalling Det Con Andrew Pilling

The images were discovered in Salford in January 2007 when an arrested man's computers were examined. The man is not linked to King.

Police identified King as the abuser and he later admitted that he had abused the baby and took three pictures on his mobile phone.

He then sent the pictures on when he was chatting on the internet to others about sex and child abuse, police said.

Det Con Andrew Pilling, of Greater Manchester Police's Abusive Images Investigation Unit, said: "What King did to this young child is absolutely appalling.

"This was a sickening example of what some people will do for their own sexual gratification."

King, of Avondale, Swinton, was jailed for two years and four months and had his licence period extended by a year and eight months. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.