Abuse victims need their rights to come first in the courts

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Ms Owens told the Daily Express: "The offences of live streaming are dealt with as viewed images. "Either new offences are needed to reflect the real world harm or sentencing guidelines need adaptation to reflect the real world impact. "I'd need to benchmark against other serious crimes, but you'd think it should be in line with rape or grievous bodily harm." Paedophiles viewing Category A images - the worst kind of abuse - can only be jailed for three years at most, according to official Sentencing Guidelines.

By contrast, rapists can be jailed for life and thugs convicted of grievous bodily harm can also face life imprisonment, with judges looking at sentences of between three and 19 years. The National Crime Agency (NCA) says online abuse is "frequently carried out by lone offenders who access children, and evade detection, using the Dark Web and the mainstream internet". The Internet Watch Foundation said 105,047 web addresses were hosting child sexual abuse images in 2018, with over half in the Netherlands. Child sexual offences have rocketed from 15 to 23 a day and the NCA has estimated 80,000 paedophiles now pose an online threat to children.

Lynne Owens warns ‘new rules needed’ to combat the crimes

The Agency received 82,109 individual referrals for child sex abuse images in 2017, a seven-fold rise since 2012. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has branded the internet a "hunting ground for monsters". Meanwhile, a mother whose jailed paedophile ex-husband used court orders to block their two children from going on holiday has won a court battle this week with his parents who were fighting for contact with them. The case in South Wales has left her having to pay £41,000 in legal fees.