Leeds Crown Court in West Yorkshire, England has sentenced a former music teacher in Thailand to a five-year prison term for plotting the sexual abuse of Filipino minors.

James Alexander, a 42-year-old Leeds native, allegedly orchestrated the abuse of young girls while he was teaching at Bromsgrove International School in Bangkok.

Alexander, who had lived in Thailand since 2017, was busted by the UK National Crime Agency after sending money to facilitators known for live-streaming child sexual abuse from Iligan City, Philippines.

He was arrested by the agency on June 30 last year upon arriving at the Manchester Airport. Another suspect has been arrested in the Philippines and several children have been rescued and placed under protective care.

In the sentence passed last Friday, the British man was placed on a permanent sex offender list and banned from all foreign travel.

“Alexander clearly tried to manipulate and exploit the poverty of the vulnerable in order to gratify his sick sexual desires,” said Hazel Stewart, a senior investigating officer at the NCA.“He believed he could abuse Filipino children safely from his home and wanted to visit the Philippines to carry out the sexual abuse himself.”

Investigators found evidence of at least 15 money transfers to the abuse facilitators on Alexander’s devices upon his arrest. Transactions were made between August 2017 and this past June.

He was reportedly asking the facilitators to send him naked images of girls under 13 years old.

Numerous illicit photos of minors were discovered on Alexander’s phone, including messages of him describing his intention to abuse children as young as 4 years old.

Alexander also attempted to arrange travel to the Philippines allegedly to abuse the children in person. However, there were no records of him ever going to the country.

Before his arrest, he worked as a part-time DJ while teaching at the international school located in Bangkok’s Min Buri district. There was reportedly no evidence of sexual abuse during his time at the school, according to the agency.

Featured image via National Crime Agency