This is the moment a “paedophile” rings a confidential helpline seeking help for his addiction to child abuse images, as a charity warns more women are becoming predators.
A total of 81,426 Londoners contacted the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s Stop It Now service in 2024 - around one in three UK callers.
Child protectors say a staggering 10 per cent of them were women, turning to experts because of their own self-confessed risk towards children.
BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme found cases of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse recorded by police in England and Wales almost doubled between 2015 and 2019.
Individuals who have already offended or unknown to police can come forward to Lucy Faithfull before suffering the consequences of a dawn raid.
A hard-hitting TV advert from the organisation sends an uncompromising message to those “waiting for the knock” that suicide and self-harm are highest after arrest and their partners will feel forced to live in shame.
Lucy Faithfull invited the Standard to its south London call centre to listen into a simulated call between advisor Jenny Taylor and a man using the name “Frank”.
The 23-year-old says he heard about the service after his illegal internet searches flashed up an online alert three days earlier.
Frank tells Mrs Taylor he feels “disgusted” with himself, adding: “I just crossed those boundaries. I don’t really know why.”
As he admits to having a sexual interest in underage youngsters based on what he’d already seen, Frank says: “I need to stop this before it kind of gets into anything worse and becomes a bit more of a pattern. I need to stop the escalation.”
He adds: “Obviously, I got that warning when I was on the internet and it made me realise I might need some help with what’s been going on.
“It kind of gave me a bit of a reality check. It might be against the law.
“It was warning me about the kid of porn I was searching for. About kids, showing children, sexual things. It told me what I’d searched for was illegal, that it needs to stop and there was help available.”
Forensic psychologist Dr Alexandra Bailey told the Standard perpetrators are overwhelmingly male but more is now understood about extent of such abuse committed by females.
Dr Bailey, who completed a Ministry of Justice study into women who abuse, said: “This is an important area because generally as a society we don’t tend to recognise women as being able to sexually harm.
“But of course they can do so we need to be able to work with women who may pose that risk.
“One of the things that we have found is with our Stop It Now helpline with all of our callers who have called saying they are concerned about their sexual thoughts about children, that 10 per cent of that group have been women.
“In society, we generally tend to view women as the nurturers and the carers and certainly not individuals as sexually aggressive in any way. We can then deny women are possible of causing sexual harm.
“Although women and men might commit similar types of offences and may do so for similar reasons, there are groups of women who have co-offenders - and often that is a man. Men don’t have co-offenders in that way.
“A woman might also want to meet intimacy needs with the co-offender, rather than directly with the victim.”
Vicky Young, head of Stop it Now, recommends anyone who feels at risk of their behaviour to change broadband settings so they can’t access over-18 porn.
More young people and their parents are contacting Lucy Faithfull for advice, as well as wives and partners of paedophiles.
She said: “It is a blow to their family and can be very distressing. We know of partners who have been suicidal or completed suicide. It’s devastating to see.
“Anyone with concerns about child sexual abuse, whether it’s their own behaviour or someone else’s, then please contact our helpline. It’s completely anonymous and confidential. We are able to offer non-judgement support and advice.”
