A man from Croydon has been convicted of a range of offences involving sexual abuse of children, including inciting the rape of a baby.
Keith Edun, 47, of Strathmore Road, appeared at Croydon Crown Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to inciting the rape of a baby, distribution of indecent images of children, two counts of making indecent images of children, and perverting the course of justice.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Phill Govett said: “This was an extremely complex investigation involving the digital forensic examination of multiple devices, cross-referencing his online activity with real-world actions which revealed what a scheming and meticulous offender Edun is.
“He went to great lengths to hide his offending, but I’m glad to see that despite his attempts to evade justice for his crimes, he will now face the consequences of his actions.”
In July 2021 police were informed that an unknown user had shared a number of indecent images of children via an account on the social media app Kik.
Detectives working in the Met’s Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Command were informed and began investigating. They were able to link the account to an address in Croydon. A search warrant was executed in September 2021 and the digital devices found to be present were seized for examination.
Awaiting sentence: Keith Edun
Owing to their thorough examination of the seized devices, officers were able to link Edun to the offending account. The accumulated evidence showed that Edun had been active for several years, often pretending to be a female named “Sally” on multiple social media platforms.
A separate investigation by another force led to the conviction of a male for the rape of a baby which occurred in March 2020. Upon examination of that male’s devices, the investigating officers located online communication with Edun’s Kik account during which Edun had encouraged the male to commit the rape.
Officers were able to establish from data retrieved from his mobile phone that Edun had been regularly installing and uninstalling Kik, in an apparent attempt to hide his activity online. Communication content is destroyed when the app is removed.
Analysis of that data identified that Edun had deleted the Kik app in the few seconds between officers gaining entry to his home and seizing his mobile phone, perverting the course of justice.
During police questioning Edun denied any knowledge of the images, or ever using the offending account, saying he had been hacked and that there had been an error with the router provided by his internet service provider. These lies were able to be disproved by the digital forensic expert who gave clear evidence that such activity had not taken place.
Edun was charged in October 2023 and was remanded into custody. He will be sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on February 14.
DC Govett added: “The baby at the centre of this investigation has been identified and safeguarded thanks to the excellent work of our colleagues.
“I’d like to thank them for their support, as well as the Crown Prosecution Service, who have worked diligently to properly present the complexities in this case.
“Safeguarding children is the number one priority of all officers who work in this field and bringing offenders such as Edun to justice is just one way in which we are able to do this.”
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