Paedophile Sophie Elms, ‪18, of Royal Wootton Bassett jailed Published duration 28 January 2019

image copyright Wiltshire Police image caption When Elms was arrested indecent images and video including those classed in category A - the most serious - were found on her mobile phones

A teenage paedophile has been jailed for sex attacks on two young children.

Sophie Elms, ‪18, had previously pleaded guilty to 16 child sex offences including distributing indecent images.

Elms, of Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire was arrested after sending images and videos of her assaulting the children to a known sex offender.

Being aged just 17 when she committed the offences Elms was one of the youngest women in the UK to commit such crimes, Swindon Crown Court heard.

Jailing the ex-childcare student for seven years and 10 months, Judge Jason Taylor QC told her she had deliberately inflicted "psychological damage" on her victims.

'Unimaginable, horrific event'

Her victims were aged only about two and three when she attacked them, the court heard.

Elms was arrested on 10 March 2018 after Wiltshire Police received information from West Mercia Police as part of an investigation of a local sex offender, who is currently serving a 15-year jail term.

As she stood in the dock a statement was read out by the father of one of the victims.

He described the impact of her offences on the family as "unimaginable" and said the "horrific event" has "damaged all their lives".

"At the time of committing these atrocious crimes, she was studying child care with a long term aim of working with very young children in the future," Det Insp Simon Childe, of Wiltshire Police, said.

'Immature individual'

Four mobile phones owned by the defendant were seized and found to contain indecent images and video including those classed in category A - the most serious, the court heard.

Elms had also taken and distributed indecent photos of another child.

In mitigation, her defence team described her as a "vulnerable, immature individual" who had been "instigated" into committing the offences by the man she had been communicating with online.

But Judge Taylor said her offences had been carried out in a "deliberate and targeted manner".