An Erith paedophile who filmed himself abusing girls as young as eight on a trip to the Philippines has been jailed for 19 years and six months.

Trevor Monk, 47, of of Cornelia Place, gave "facilitators" thousands of pounds for access to the children during a two-week holiday to the Far East in the spring of 2014.

Between December 2010 and November 2014 he also transferred a total of £14,740 via Western Union to accounts in the Philippines in exchange for live streams of the abuse of young girls.

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Trevor Howe, 47, of Cornelia Place, Erith

The Old Bailey heard last week that he claimed the payments were not in exchange for the indecent videos, but because he knew the children were living in poor conditions and wanted them to be able to eat.

Monk also confessed to flying to the Philippines, but said this was to visit his "girlfriends".

The court heard he told officers he first met one of the female facilitators - Janet - online when "she was sending him live shows of her abusing children".

At the time of his arrest the former machine operator admitted he had downloaded what he described as "child exploitation pictures".

Prosecutor Timothy Probert-Wood told the court that examination of computers, external hard drives and memory cards found at Monk's home revealed tens of thousands of indent images and video of children, and evidence that he had himself molested young girls in the Philippines.

Just one of the computers contained evidence of more than 43,000 indecent images of children.

Records of Yahoo chat logs revealed negotiation of payments between Monk and the women in the Philippines. In one discussion he told the woman "£1,500 for the girl, £500 for you".

The court heard details of some of the images Monk was sent, one of which included a girl aged around seven to 10 years pulling her top down and holding a sign saying "for you James" - the name that he used in his email address to chat.

Using the messaging service, Monk also arranged to meet up with his facilitators and young girls when he visited the Philippines between March 23 2014 and April 4 2014.

On March 31 2014 he asked a woman if he would be allowed to "f***" the girl she is to provide for him, to which she replies "the sky is the limit".

However, later that day he sent a frustrated message claiming to have been lied to, as the girl was 16 and on her period, and not 13 and willing to participate in whatever he wanted.

He tells the woman: "You should be ashamed - you gave me lies about touching and f******".

During the same trip Monk filmed a number of girls aged in their early teens touching themselves and can even be heard in the footage encouraging them to do so.

One of the videos Monk filmed and directed showed an adult female molesting a girl under the age of 13.

Mr Probert-Wood said: "In interview Monk said he thought the female was the child's mother."

Monk pleaded guilty to one count each of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and sexual assault of a child under 13.

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He further admitted two counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, six counts of causing a child to engage in a sexual act, one count of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, three counts of making indecent photographs of children and three counts of possessing indecent photographs of children.

During sentencing at the Old Bailey yesterday (January 26), Judge Anuja Dhir QC told Monk that the consequences of child abuse of this kind "wrecks lives".

She said: "I have no doubt from the material I have seen today you had a perverted fascination with young females and that is what led you to behave in this abhorrent manner.

"Your actions were depraved and revolting. It is astonishing that anyone would want to film such abuse, but you did. I have no doubt you did so so that you could watch it again for your own sexual gratification."