A distinguished former BBC correspondent and Kings Cross Paedophile, Duncan Bartlett, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for paying to view live online broadcasts of child sexual exploitation.
Duncan Bartlett, 52, executed multiple transactions to the Philippines over seven years to access disturbing livestreams involving girls as young as nine years old.
Duncan Bartlett formerly served as the BBC’s correspondent in Tokyo and dedicated 15 years to the World Business Report on BBC World Service.
In recent years, he served as the editor of Asian Affairs magazine and, for the past three years, has been employed as a research associate at the SOAS China Institute in London.
SOAS stated that he was not engaged in direct student instruction but had been tasked with creating a weekly podcast series titled China in Context.
Duncan Bartlett, residing on Judd Street near King’s Cross, confessed to 35 criminal charges associated with his online activities and the accumulation of indecent photos of children, with offences dating back to 2016.
The Metropolitan Police reported that he was initially apprehended in September 2021, on intelligence connecting him to the downloading of indecent photographs of minors.
Electronic devices were confiscated, revealing that Bartlett possessed roughly 6,000 illicit photos of minors.
Detectives also found evidence that Duncan Bartlett had been making payments to people in the Philippines who would arrange live shows involving children stripping naked.
Some of the victims have been identified and put under safeguarding measures in the Philippines, Scotland Yard said.
Detective Constable Emily Dawson who led the investigation said: “Over a period of seven years, Duncan Bartlett made multiple payments to people in the Philippines asking that they arrange children to be sexually exploited for his own gratification.
“With close liaison work with our counterparts in the Philippines, we managed to identify and safeguard some of these children while several adults were arrested.
“Duncan Bartlett’s behaviour was utterly abhorrent but thanks to the painstaking work of detectives, a case documenting his offending was put together – this left him with no option but to admit his guilt.”
Bartlett pleaded guilty to 11 counts of causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, nine counts of causing a girl 13-15 to engage in sexual activity, 10 counts of paying for the sexual services of girl under 13, three charges of making indecent images of children, and two offences of encouraging the commission of either way offences.
SOAS said Duncan Bartlett left his role at the university in September this year, having been a contractor since January 1 2021.
The BBC said Duncan Bartlett left the corporation in 2015.
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