Duncan Bartlett: Former BBC journalist jailed for child sex offences

Former BBC journalist Duncan Bartlett has been jailed after admitting paying money to watch live streams of children being sexually exploited.

Duncan Bartlett, of Judd Street, WC1 was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment at Wood Green Crown Court on 9 December.

He had pleaded guilty to 35 offences at an earlier hearing at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on 30 August.

Bartlett was arrested on 14 September 2021 after detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command received information that he was accessing indecent images of children.

After his arrest, electronic devices belonging to Bartlett were seized and forensically examined. Nearly 6,000 indecent images of children were recovered and detectives also found evidence that Bartlett had been making payments to people in the Philippines who would arrange live films of children being sexually exploited which he would watch.

Detectives from the Met’s Online Child Abuse and Sexual Exploitation Team liaised with law enforcement authorities in the Philippines to pass information on about the people who were exploiting the children. A number of children were also identified and safeguarding by agencies in the Philippines.

Detective Constable Emily Dawson who led the investigation said:

“Over a period of seven years, Bartlett made multiple payments to people in the Philippines asking that they arrange children to be sexually exploited for his own gratification.

“With close liaison work with our counterparts in the Philippines, we managed to identify and safeguard some of these children while several adults were arrested.

“Bartlett’s behaviour was utterly abhorrent but thanks to the painstaking work of detectives, a case documenting his offending was put together – this left him with no option but to admit his guilt.”

Pleaded guilty

Duncan Bartlett pleaded guilty to the following offences:

11 counts of causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity;
Nine counts pf causing a girl 13-15 to engage in sexual activity;
Ten counts of paying for the sexual services of girl under 13;
Three counts of making indecent images of children;
Two counts of encouraging the commission of either way offences.

Duncan Bartlett BBC Career

Duncan Bartlett worked for the BBC in Tokyo and as a reporter on World Business Report on BBC News for a period of 14 years.

In recent years he was the editor of Asian Affairs magazine, and in the last three years he had been working as a research associate at the SOAS China Institute in London.

SOAS said he was not involved in directly teaching students, but had been commissioned to produce a weekly podcast series called China in Context.

How to report sexual abuse

To report child sexual abuse and exploitation, contact the police via online live chat system or by calling 101. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger or vulnerable to harm, please call 999.

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