A PAEDOPHILE was captured in just 14 hours thanks to a camera phone, a bay window and a distinctive mole on his hand.

Timothy Edmonds, who filmed himself abusing his victim, shared the images with other perverts who uploaded them to the web.

They were picked up by police in Denmark, who contacted officers from the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Using the location data embedded in the photo to narrow down their search to one road in Witney, they then alerted officers from Thames Valley Police.

All police knew was they were looking for a house with a bay window – featured in the background of one of the pictures – and the abuser had a distinctive mole on his hand.

Police scoured the road and knocked on the door of the only house with a bay window. It was opened by 27-year-old Edmonds, who had an identical mole on his hand.

He was then arrested immediately within 14 hours of the image being uploaded.

And on Friday he was jailed for 12 years at Oxford Crown Court having earlier admitted four counts of rape of a child under 13, two counts of sexual activity with a child, seven charges of taking indecent photographs of a child and two counts of distribution of indecent photographs.

Prosecutor Cathy Olliver said: “Using the information from the photos police were actually able to do a drive-by of the house and were able to identify the house as it was the only one with a bay window.

“Officers went and knocked on the door and when he answered they saw he had a distinctive mole on his hand as shown in the photographs, and he was arrested.”

Mrs Olliver said Edmonds had groomed and abused his victim over a number of years and would film their encounters.

She said he “wore through her resistance and persuaded her” to pose for photographs and engage in sexual activity with him about once every six months. On one occasion Edmonds tied up his naked victim “with string or twine and slapped her”.

Mrs Olliver said images were shared with another paedophile who put them on a website.

The court heard Edmonds became interested in child pornography after sitting on a jury in a paedophile trial at Oxford Crown Court.

Asked in police interview how long he would have gone on abusing the girl, he said he “would have continued until she was fully a young woman” and was “still in mid-project”.

Amiot Vollenweiger, defending, said his client was “thoroughly penitent and contrite” and was “someone who has spiralled out of control into a dark and unpleasant place”.

He said Edmonds “wasn’t a victim of child abuse, doesn’t have traits of psychopathology or mental disorder” and added: “This is a man who wishes to now get help.”

Judge Patrick Eccles praised the work of police in the case and called Edmonds’ actions “deviant, perverted and depraved”.

Speaking after the case, Detective Sergeant Steve Clarke, from Thames Valley Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), said: “This type of offence certainly leaves a trail that can be investigated.”

Edmonds is banned from working with children and is on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.