Undated handout photo issued by the National Crime Agency (NCA) of music teacher James Alexander, 42, who wanted to abuse girls as young as four in the Philippines, has been jailed for five years. Photo: National Crime Agency/PA Wire

A music teacher who wanted to abuse girls as young as four in the Philippines has been jailed for five years.

James Alexander, 42, who also performed as a DJ in Thailand, used Skype and WhatsApp in a bid to travel to the Southeast Asian country to carry out the attacks.

Alexander, who taught in Leeds and Malaysia before moving to Thailand, sent money to facilitators who had live-streamed abuse.

There were no records of him ever travelling to the Philippines but he asked Filipino mothers for indecent photos of their children and told one he wanted to abuse her four-year-old daughter.

Alexander, who served as a reservist in the Parachute Regiment from 1999 to 2003, was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) when he flew into Manchester from Thailand in June last year.

He admitted one count of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; three counts of attempting to cause or incite a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity, and one count of making an indecent image of a child.

Alexander, of Beeston, Leeds, was jailed for five years at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order which bans foreign travel, and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Hazel Stewart, National Crime Agency senior investigating officer, said: "Alexander clearly tried to manipulate and exploit the poverty of the vulnerable in order to gratify his sick sexual desires.

"He believed he could abuse Filipino children safely from his home and wanted to visit the Philippines to carry out the sexual abuse himself.

"The NCA has strong partnerships with law enforcement in the Philippines. We work together to combat this kind of offending.

"We and UK policing will never give up our pursuit of offenders who commit these horrendous crimes."

Alexander was sacked from Bromsgrove International School in Bangkok, Thailand, after the the NCA probe was launched and investigators found no evidence of him abusing students.

PA Media