Paedophile who wanted to rape girls and baby jailed

Durham Police Mugshot of Madgin. He has a fat face with a scruffy grey goatee beard and thick shoulder length frizzy dark hair. He is also wearing glasses.Durham Police
James Madgin described himself as a "paedo" to what he thought was a 12-year-old girl he wanted to rape
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A man who described himself as a "paedo" and tried to arrange to rape two girls and a baby has been jailed for seven years.

James Madgin, 41, believed he was speaking to a 12-year-old girl, a teacher grooming a pupil and a mother abusing her children, but all three were decoy profiles set up by police, Teesside Crown Court previously heard.

He also collected almost 1,000 indecent images of children over a five-year period, including 534 in the most serious category and one of which showed a baby being raped.

Madgin, who had previously been jailed for child sex offences, admitted six counts, including attempting to arrange the commission of the rape of children.

He made contact with three different profiles online between November 2025 and February, all of which were decoys run by the police, Judge Andrew Hatton said.

The first purported to be a 12-year-old girl called Poppy, who Madgin said was "cute" and he wanted to have sex with, the court heard.

Madgin, from Sherburn Village near Durham, told her he was a "paedo" and he knew it was "against the law" for him to speak to her, yet he persisted in sending graphic messages, the court heard.

The second profile was of a man named Chris who claimed to be teacher who had groomed a 12-year-old girl, to which Madgin replied "oh nice", the court heard.

The men discussed meeting up so Madgin could rape the girl, the court heard.

Images of abuse

The third profile claimed to be a woman called Kelly who had a 12-year-old daughter she had abused since infancy and a one-year-old son, the court heard.

Madgin's "grossly" graphic messages included him trying to arrange to rape both children, the court heard.

He also told Kelly he had known he was attracted to children since he was 13 and had finally come to "accept" what he was, the court heard.

On the back of the conversations, police raided Madgin's home on 23 February and seized two laptops and a phone, on which they discovered 983 indecent images of children collected since 2021, the court heard.

His haul included videos that were more than three hours long and images of a baby being raped, the judge said.

The court heard Madgin was jailed for eight months in 2009 for 19 offences including making and distributing indecent images of children and causing or inciting a boy to engage in sexual activity.

After his latest sentence, Madgin will also have to sign the sex offenders register and comply with a sexual harm prevention order for the rest of his life.

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