Plymouth couple jailed for drugging and sexually abusing child while US paedophile watched on Skype

Sarah Gotham and Craig Forbes broadcast footage to Californian strip bar waitress Kori Ellis

Craig Forbes and Sarah Gotham jailed for sexually assaulting a child (Devon and Cornwall Police)

A Plymouth couple have been jailed after sexually abusing a child while streaming the footage live to a paedophile waitress in the US.

Sarah Gotham, 34, and her partner Craig Forbes, 36, assaulted the girl, who was under 13 and drugged at the time, in front of a webcam and sent the images over Skype, reports the BBC.

Gotham was found guilty at Plymouth Crown Court and jailed for nine years, while Forbes, who had already admitted sexually assaulting the girl between December 2012 and March 2013, was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The court was told how the pair had sex sessions with the girl present and that Gotham performed sex acts on her.

The abuse was broadcast live to Kori Ellis, 42, a self-confessed paedophile in San Francisco who admitted after her own arrest in the US to encouraging Gotham and Forbes to abuse the child for her pleasure.

Police, who are not sure of the victim’s identity, said the girl appeared unaware of the abuse and must have been drugged.

The couple came to the attention of British police after Ellis, a waitress in a strip bar and former dominatrix, identified Gotham and Forbes during a wide ranging investigation by the FBI.

She was later flown to the UK to give evidence against the pair, where she told the jury she had watched Gotham abuse the girl alone and on other occasions alongside Forbes. FBI officers also testified in the trial, according to The Plymouth Herald.

Judge Ian Lawrie, passing sentence, said he considered sales manager Gotham to have been "corrupted" by Forbes and "under his spell".

"He is manipulative, devious and is unquestionably interested in child pornography and from everything I have read and heard a clear and constant threat to children," he said.

Nicholas Lewin, defending Gotham, said the offences happened due to the influence of Forbes, branding him the "vilest of predatory paedophiles".

Gotham was found guilty of six charges of sexual assault of a child under 13. Forbes admitted to three charges of sexual assault, possession of indecent images and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.