A woman who raped and abused children with a lover she met online has been found dead in her prison cell. Rebecca Holloway’s case was described by a judge as one of the ‘most distressing’ he had ever seen.

Officers investigating Holloway found sexual images of children in her possession as well as a close-up picture of girls’ underwear and sex toys. They then discovered a girl had been raped and another child, a very young boy, had a sexual injury.

The mum admitted a list of child sexual offences, including two rapes, at Great Grimbsy Crown Court in 2018.

She was later sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison. Last month, Holloway was found dead aged 31 at HMP Low Newton in County Durham, where she was less than five years into her sentence.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘HMP/YOI Low Newton prisoner Rebecca Holloway died on 13 February.

‘As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’

Her next of kin have been informed. Holloway met serial paedophile Oliver Wilson online and the pair teamed up to carry out sickening abuse of children.

During her trial, prosecutor Paul O’Shea said Holloway sank to ‘real depths of depravity to satisfy her own sexual urges’. She and her lover were both jailed in 2020, with Wilson being sentenced to 30 years after being convicted of 11 sex offences, including five rapes.

His phone revealed ‘highly sexualised and extremely graphic’ conversations with Holloway about sex abuse against children. A copy of the Lolita movie – the controversial story of a middle-aged literature professor who becomes sexually involved with a young girl – and a bin bag of soiled children’s clothes were also discovered at his home.