A man who shared his plans to abuse a young child with predators online has been jailed for seven years.

Towhid Choudhury, of Maitland Park Road in Chalk Farm, was handed the sentence at Wood Green Crown Court yesterday (April 22).

The 26-year-old had previously pleaded guilty at the same court to a number of like offences, including distributing indecent photographs and attempting to arrange/facilitate the commission of a child sex offence.

Choudhury also admitted to possessing a prohibited image of a child; to engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child under 13, and to three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Officers from the Met’s online child sexual abuse and exploitation team raided Choudhury's home in September 2021, after receiving intelligence that he had been uploading indecent images of children to the internet.

They found two phones hidden at the back of a shoe cupboard as well as laptops, a hard drive, a tablet and a USB stick.

Choudhury admitted that there was indecent material on his devices while his flat was being searched, asking officers how long he could expect to spend in prison.

Further searches found that the 26-year-old was active on websites and messaging apps used for the sharing of child abuse material.

Some of his devices used advanced encryption and were set up to auto-delete if he was caught; however, officers acted swiftly to secure evidence before this happened.

They also found that Choudhury had been actively engaging with other predators online, sharing extreme pornographic videos and images.

On numerous occasions, he was found to have discussed specific plans to abuse a child under the age of five with others.

PC Pete Howes, from the Met’s online child sexual abuse and exploitation team, said: “Choudhury is a dangerous offender who was actively planning to abuse a very young child.

“We have every reason to believe that - had he not been arrested - he would have gone on to do so.

“It is right that he is now behind bars where he can’t pose a further risk to children."

PC Howes said that Choudhury's case demonstrates that online offending is just as damaging.

“Choudhury’s in-person offending was discovered because we responded to intelligence about his activity online."