Cardiff Teenager Jailed After Making & Selling Online Child Abuse Material

A Nigerian teenager who recorded online child sexual abuse and distributed the resulting material to buyers through messaging apps has been sentenced to four years in prison at Cardiff Crown Court.

Gift Ayoola admitted offences including making and distributing indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornography, and causing and inciting children to engage in sexual activity.

The court heard that Ayoola used digital platforms to compel young victims into performing sexual acts during live video calls before recording the encounters.

In one instance, he communicated online with a 12-year-old girl, directing her to expose herself while telling her to watch him engage in a sexual act.

In another online exchange, he was in contact with a girl aged between 11 and 13 and a child aged between two and four, instructing the older child during video calls to perform sexual acts and involve the younger child.

Ayoola was initially arrested in January 2025 at his Cardiff address, where law enforcement officers seized digital devices containing a repository of illicit material. Analysis of the seized hardware revealed 455 Category A images, including four obtained through direct recording, 401 Category B images, and 389 Category C images, alongside extreme pornographic images depicting bestiality. Investigators established that the defendant participated in group chats on Telegram and WhatsApp to distribute indecent images of children, receiving requests from buyers to purchase material. Financial records showed that he made transactions via PayPal, including acknowledging the receipt of £5,000 from a single buyer in exchange for 877 images and videos.

During police interviews, Ayoola claimed he had been supplied with photos of individuals aged between 16 and 18 and admitted sharing material due to financial pressure.

While on bail, he was arrested a second time on 5 March 2026, when officers found further illicit content, including 14 Category A images, 15 Category B images and 22 Category C images involving children as young as four years old.

Defence counsel Martha Smith-Higgins told the court that her client had lost his mother at six years old before moving to the UK, describing him as a remorseful young man who had previously been well-behaved.

Passing sentence, Judge Vanessa Francis said, "The children you exploited were much younger than you; some were very young indeed. These children required protection and you were encouraging them to pose for extremely harmful material. This was a grievous form of sexual abuse." The judge added, "These were not simply images; they were children whose trust and vulnerability were exploited in order to make sexual material."

Rejecting assertions that the defendant lacked sexual attraction to children or that his actions lacked sexual motivation, Judge Francis made Ayoola subject to sex offender notification requirements indefinitely. The court also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for a period of 10 years alongside the four-year custodial sentence.