Harrogate man jailed for sex assault on toddler
Detectives in Harrogate have brought a child abuser and online groomer to justice
Last updated 8th Dec 2021
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A Harrogate child abuser and online groomer has been jailed for six years.
Wenxiong Jiang, 26, was was convicted of a raft of offences including an assault on a two year old boy. He was sentenced to six years and 11 months’ imprisonment at York Crown Court on Friday (3 December 2021).
He was also made subject to a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will remain on the Register of Sex Offenders indefinitely.
Jiang was convicted of the following offences that he committed between February 2017 and December 2020:
sexual assault on a two-year-old boy
three counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity
engaging in sexual communication with a child
taking an indecent image of a child
five counts of making an indecent image of a child
possessing an extreme pornographic image involving an animal
possessing a prohibited image of a child
Detective Constable Rebecca Townsend, of Harrogate CID, led the intensive investigation into Jiang’s offending following his arrest on 15 December 2020.
The inquiry uncovered that he had added a 12-year-old girl on Snapchat and engaged her in conversations while he was posing as a 15-year-old boy.
Jiang pressured and then eventually threatened the girl to send him naked pictures of herself engaging in penetrative sexual activity.
When he was arrested, officers recovered 250,000 images from his devices including a video of himself sexually assaulting a two-year-old boy.
The Digital Forensic Unit examined all the material to help identify offences and possible victims.
DC Townsend said:
“Wenxiong Jiang is clearly a very disturbed and perverted individual who poses a danger to children.
“He has rightfully been brought to justice and is now facing the full consequences of his depravity with a significant prison sentence.
“As a registered sex offender, he is subject to robust public protection measures for the rest of his life. He will also have to comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order lasting 20 years which is designed to severely limit his ability to reoffend in the future.”