KENT MAN SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS FOR HORRIFIC CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE FUNDING
A man from Kent, Patrick Howlett, has been convicted of sending £56,000 to the Philippines to pay for livestreams of children being sexually abused.Howlett claimed he was making the payments in an effort to make the abuse stop, but investigators uncovered the horrific truth that he had actually paid parents to abuse their own children.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) started investigating Howlett after intelligence suggested he was making payments to known child sexual abuse facilitators.
He was found to have been in regular contact with a woman in the Philippines who was abusing her own children at his request and direction, taking photographs or videos of the abuse to send to him in exchange for large sums of money.
One victim was subjected to years of abuse, resulting in 1,277 images of her suffering, from age eight when the first image was taken to 14 when she was identified and protected.
All images were recovered from Howlett’s devices, along with conversations with other offenders.
He paid over £11,777 to a facilitator, involving the abuse of a child and two siblings, and communicated with other offenders, requesting videos of a nine-year-old girl and sharing abuse images via Dropbox.
Between 2014 and 2021, he transferred approximately £55,918 to facilitators, with 796 transactions.
Howlett was arrested in July 2021, and 14,311 illegal images were found on his devices, with over 5,000 produced due to his instigation.
Children were identified and safeguarded thanks to the investigation.
Howlett pleaded guilty early in his trial, scheduled for January 2025, and was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment at Canterbury Crown Court, along with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The judge described him as showing 'a breath-taking lack of regard for the sanctity of childhood'.
Authorities confirmed that Howlett had encouraged others to abuse family members and paid for their attacks, illustrating his dangerous nature and the horrific extent of his crimes.
