A mother has told how she helped jail a man who 'groomed' her 13-year-old son over the internet.
The woman alerted police when she became aware that Lewis Matthew Sawbridge had sent her son sexual text messages and had asked the teenager to take indecent photographs and film of himself and send them to him.
Sawbridge, of Sandford Road, Syston, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this month to plead guilty to two offences – attempting to possess an indecent image of a child and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
The 24-year-old was sentenced to 10 months in prison for each offence, to be served concurrently, and told he would be on the sex offender register for 10 years.
Speaking after the case, the victim's mother, who cannot be named to protect her child's identity, said: "My son suddenly started getting text messages all the time, so I asked him what was going on.
"When I looked at his phone, I saw someone was sending him naked images of women.
"In return, this person was asking my son to send him naked pictures of himself.
"I called the police immediately, and they found him.
"I am glad I have been able to stop him.
"He knew exactly how old my son was and he attempted to groom him for two weeks before he started sending him pictures of naked women and asking my son to send him indecent pictures of himself in return."
The mother reported Sawbridge to her local police force, West Midlands Police.
Det Sgt Victoria Lee, the West Midlands Police detective who led the investigation, said Sawbridge first made contact with the boy in a public discussion forum on an internet gaming website in January last year.
"He encouraged the boy to go to another website where they could chat privately," said Det Sgt Lee.
"The victim is a young teenager and isn't very streetwise and I don't think he had any concept of the seriousness of what Sawbridge was doing.
"There were sexual advances toward the child and he was asking for naked images of the boy.
"He also asked the boy to film himself performing a sexual act on himself.
"He made a full and frank admission when we interviewed him that this was for his own sexual gratification.
"Asking the child to produce indecent images of himself took his behaviour to the next stage and that is the reason for the length of the time he will spend on the sex offender register."
• It has been brought to our attention that there is a man also called Lewis Harry Sawbridge who lives in Braunstone. We have been asked to clarify that he is not the same man and is not connected with this case in any way.
