A British man has been sentenced to three-and-a-half-years in prison after burglars found images of child pornography on his stolen laptop and turned it over to the police.
Richard Coverdale was convicted of downloading pictures of child abuse as well as exposing himself to an unsuspecting teenage girl over the internet while posing as a 14-year-old boy, according to Gazettelive.com.
Police started investigating the 24-year-old convicted arsonist after burglars discovered the images on a laptop they stole from Coverdale's house in August 2008 and contacted police, the Web site reported.
According to prosecutors, the officers found 13 illegal photos and 65 illegal videos on the computer and uncovered online conversations between Coverdale and a 14-year-old girl, during which Coverdale pretended to be a fictitious 14-year-old boy named Danny, Gazettelive.com reported.
The last of those conversations, which took place days before the burglary, showed Coverdale invited the girl to watch "Danny" on a webcam, then filmed himself performing a sex act, the site reported.
Coverdale was sent to a juvenile detention for four years in 2003 for setting fired to five properties in one night — some with people inside, according to Gazettelive.com.
In addition to his new sentence, Coverdale has been banned for life from working with children and is schedule to receive a sexual offences prevention order this week, the site reported.
Click here to read more on this story from the Gazettelive.com.
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