'Dangerous' paedophile jailed after online abuse

A "dangerous" paedophile has been jailed for nine years after committing online sexual offences against three girls, one as young as eight years old.

Edward Durlik, from Woking, created multiple fake online profiles to pretend he was of a similar age in order to gain his victims' trust.

The 41-year-old devised a points game to get one child to send him explicit photos and videos of herself and would coerce her into sending more graphic material if she stopped talking to him.

Police were eventually called when the father of one of the victims - the eldest of which was 14 - found evidence of their chats on his daughter's phone.

Posing as an 11-year-old girl, a 13-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old girl, Durlik even used photos of a child known to him as part of his deception.

He was arrested in June 2023 on suspicion of inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

A forensic examination of his phone discovered 1,055 indecent images of children, 258 of which were Category A images, the most serious kind.

Durlik was originally charged on 29 April 2024 with several counts of causing or inciting girls under 13 and 16 to engage in penetrative and non-penetrative sexual activity, causing a child under 13 to view an image of sexual activity and encouraging the distribution of indecent images.

He was also charged with engaging in sexual communication with a child and making and distributing indecent photo/pseudo photos of a child.

During sentencing on Friday at Guildford Crown Court, His Honour Judge Sellers described Durlik as "dangerous" due to the sustained nature of the offending and the amount of planning he had put into it, along with his manipulative behaviour.

Served with a further three-year period of extended licence, Durlik was also issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, a Deprivation Order and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Det Con Steve Branch, from Surrey Police's Online Investigation Team, called Durlik's offending "abhorrent and calculated" and praised the bravery of his victims in coming forward.

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