A paedophile caught asking a ’14-year-old boy’ to send explicit pictures of himself, because he was ‘trying to get turned on’, has been handed a 12-month custodial sentence – suspended for 18 months.
Callum Eden, 31, of Partridge Road in Newport, appeared before the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court this afternoon (Tuesday) to be sentenced for 2 sexual offence matters that he previously pleaded guilty to in August this year.
As previously reported by Island Echo, Eden admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and making an indecent image of a child, namely 1x Category C image.
Today, prosecutor Liz Miller told the court that between 23rd-27th September 2024, Eden was the subject of an undercover operation led by the regional crime squad.
It was said that as part of this operation, an officer began communicating with Eden over the streaming platform Kik, where the pair were part of the same group chat advertised as being for school kids.
It was through this group chat that Eden began communicating with who he believed was a 14-year-old boy.
Ms Miller said that the officer began chatting to Eden, announcing his age early on.
Unphased by the minor’s age, the conversation continued and grew into something much more sinister, eventually resulting in the ’14-year-old boy’ sending Eden an explicit image, to which the defendant repeatedly asked for more.
Eden said:
“I’m trying to get turned on here.
“You want to see my c*ck.
“I won’t show you until I’m turned on enough”.
On 25th September, a few days after Eden began communication with the ‘child’, he initiated a conversation by saying he is going to have a wa*k, to which the boy replied that he is in school.
It was here that the registered sex offender asked for pictures of ‘sexy girls’ and ‘sexy sl*ts’ who were in form class.
Following his arrest on 9th January 2025, Eden was interviewed by police and admitted being in ownership of the Kik account, as well as admitting he knew the age of the child he assumed he was speaking to.
Defending his client, Oscar Vincent said Eden has good insight into the nature and seriousness of the offences and that he expresses remorse for his actions.
As a mitigating factor, the Magistrates also heard that Eden was paying for private counselling services out of his own back pocket and that his counsellor has even attended court with him to show her support.
Callum Eden was handed a 12-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to comply with an 18-month probation supervision requirement. He was also ordered to pay £272 to the court.
The Magistrates also imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.
Another day, another nonce