A ‘persistent and entrenched’ sex offender who used anonymous browsers to hide his identity has been jailed after police used five different undercover officers to track him down.

Daniel Keenor hid behind online aliases as he spent hours on his phone trying to contact young girls or parents who went on incest fetish websites.

He was trapped by a string of police sting operations but it took three months to track him down because he used anonymous browsers and encrypted e-mail services.

He sent child rape videos in the hope of receiving similar material in return and asked a decoy who he thought was a 12-year-old girl to abuse herself with a hairbrush.

Keenor has a decade-long history of online grooming, downloading and distributing child abuse movies and images and breaking Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPO).

He has served three different jail sentences and was being monitored by officers from the public protection team when he committed the new offences between November 2022 and February this year.

He contacted three officers who posed as adults with young girls who they discussed online and two who were posing as 12-year-old girls. He sent pictures of himself to both but only revealed his true age to one of them.

Keenor, aged 46, of Rosemary Gardens, Paignton, admitted attempting to incite a child to sexual activity, two counts of attempting to incite a child to watch sexual activity, two of attempted sexual communications with a child, one of breaching a SHPO, and 12 of making, possessing or distributing indecent images of children or extreme images.

He was jailed for seven years and three months with a two year and three months extended licence by Recorder Mr Mathew Turner at Exeter Crown Court.

He certified him as a ‘dangerous offender’ who posed a high risk to children and told him: “This was entrenched and persistent offending with an ingrained history of offending. You are likely to cause severe psychological harm were you to engage with a real 12-year-old.”

 Miss Caroline Bolt, prosecuting, said Keenor was monitored by a series of undercover officers using different fake identities, some of whom made contact through a fetish website in which he used the alias devonMincest.

He used the encrypted e-mail service Proton and the secure instant messaging service Wickr but officers eventually traced him. 

He sent batches of videos and photos to the decoys which showed children as young as two being raped and in obvious distress and discussed abusing their supposed children.

He sent naked images which may have been of himself to the officers who posed as 12-year-old girls and sent one a video of a woman masturbating with a hairbrush before asking her to copy it and send him the clip.

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said that Keenor acted out of social isolation which led him to spend hours on the internet. He acknowledges he needs help and hopes to receive treatment during his sentence.