Ordinary-looking couple’s sick double-life uncovered in ‘revolting’ WhatsApp messages
A “depraved” alcohol and drug-fuelled couple secretly photographed and filmed an underage child. Andrew Boyd, 41, and Lara Boyd, 40, from Tameside, appeared to the outside world a “middle-aged couple working hard in their employment.”
In reality, they were consuming “enormous” quantities of cocaine and downing “gallons” of alcohol. The sick pair covertly captured images of a child they had a “sexual interest” in. Revolting WhatsApp conversations were uncovered as they “titillated themselves”.
The Boyds have now been jailed. Minshull Street Crown Court heard officers were alerted to an indecent image of a child from Andrew’s IP address. Police attended the couple’s residence and he was arrested, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Electronic devices – including an iPad, iPhone, Playstation 4 and laptop – were seized. Andrew admitted he had conversed with people on the messaging app Kik on ‘topics of a sexual nature’, but denied sharing images of children.
Officers discovered indecent images of a child ‘clearly taken without any form of knowledge or consent’. WhatsApp messages revealed the child was the subject of their ‘sexual appetite’.
The images were only shared between the pair, who were both later arrested.
Andrew Boyd earlier pleaded guilty to voyeurism; publishing an obscene article; two counts of making indecent images of children; two counts of distributing indecent images of children; and possession of an extreme pornographic image. Lara Boyd pleaded guilty to voyeurism; publishing an obscene article; and two counts of making indecent images of children.
Both received two-year prison sentences. The child wrote a statement declaring the Boyds would ‘never fully know the effects’ the ordeal has had on them. They revealed they suffer from ‘recurring nightmares’.
Andrew sat staring at the floor while Lara wept.
Saul Brody, defending Andrew, stated he ‘sank into the mire of alcohol and drug fuelled depravity’. ‘Disinhibited’ by booze and cocaine, his client began accessing pornography, which led to an ‘unhealthy interest in more taboo and extreme areas’, Mr Brody added.
He described the messages between the couple as ‘revolting’. Mr Brody said Andrew is now sober and a ‘very different person’.
Lara is ‘thoroughly ashamed’, barrister Ellie Akhgar said, adding: “She knows this is quite the fall from grace. The commission of these offences are, and will be, the greatest regret of her life, and she accepts they should be.”
Lara has ceased taking drugs and now ‘rarely’ drinks.
The couple’s relationship is ‘complex’, the court heard. Ms Akhgar said Lara had been ‘subject to bouts of domestic violence at the hands of Andrew’.
They remain together. Judge Tina Landale described it as an “extremely serious” case and that the impact on the victim has been “severe.”
