North Yorkshire man jailed after subjecting young girl to sexual abuse over two-year period

Daniel John Gresham, of Harrogate, was jailed at York Crown Court on Friday (July 17) after pleading guilty to sexual touching a girl aged under 13, making Category C indecent images and distributing Category C indecent images of the same girl.

He was arrested in March this year after detectives from North Yorkshire's online abuse and exploitation team were able to pinpoint him as the person making and distributing indecent images of children.

Officers executed a search warrant at his Harrogate home and his electronic devices were analysed by the force's digital forensics unit.

The detectives were able to prove that he had been sexually abusing the girl in the images he had taken between October 2013 and October 2015, and that he had shared the same images online in February 2020.

He had been in custody since he was charged on March 7.

Detective Sergeant Lee Allenby, of the Online Abuse & Exploitation Team, said: “Despite the emerging operational difficulties posed by the coronavirus during this time, we were able to progress the investigation and secure charges against Daniel Gresham.

“More importantly, we were able to identify and safeguard a young victim who had been keeping her abuse a secret for many years. I have nothing but admiration for her bravery in supporting the investigation and I hope the outcome at court will help her to put this terrible experience behind her.

“The officer in the case, DC Lucy Armstrong, and the wider investigation team did an excellent job to achieve this result. As for Gresham, he is clearly a dangerous individual who is now facing up to the consequences of his depraved actions.

“We will not rest until such offenders are arrested, convicted and put behind bars where they can do the least amount of harm to vulnerable victims and to society as a whole.”

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