Mum horrified to find pictures of son, two, posted on child abuse website

She discovered her toddler's pictures had been online for years illustrating a horrific child abuse case in the US.

A mum was ‘sickened’ when she discovered pictures of her two-year-old son were being used without permission on a website warning about child abuse.

Oliver Alston’s photos were taken from Facebook to illustrate a story about a toddler who was ‘starved to within inches of his death’ by his parents.

Mum Jodie, 34, was horrified when she found the black and white photos of her son posted on the blog ‘Lighting Their Way Home’ which focuses on the stories of kidnapped and murdered children.

For five years the website had claimed the boy in the shots – Oliver at the age of two – was another child who had been starved by his parents.

The abused boy – called Riley Alston, like Oliver’s brother – was abused by his parents who were both sentenced to 60 years in prison in the US in 2014.

Jodie, from Keswick, Cumbria, made the discovery while searching her other son’s name.

Oliver’s photos have since been taken off the website, but still appear in Google with the caption ‘Riley Alston starved to within inches of his death’.

The police clerk mum-of-four said: ‘I felt sick to the stomach and really angry.

‘It is child exploitation and identity fraud.’

She added: ‘We are just a perfectly normal family who live in the countryside and we never expected anything like this to happen.

‘The photos had been up there for years and we had no idea. We knew nothing about it for so long.

‘We were oblivious and it is just sick. I do wonder how many other children on the website are actually the victims.

‘There could be so many other families out there like us. I am scared to death of putting any photos online now.’

Oliver, now nine, was pictured alongside the photos of hundreds of other young children who have been the apparent victims of child abuse.

But Oliver’s photographs were lifted from Facebook weeks after Jodie uploaded them in 2014.

They were used to illustrate the story of Riley Alston, who is not a relation, who was starved by his parents Justin and Brittany Alston. The abusive pair, both 21, were jailed in June 2014 for their atrocious crimes.

Jodie stumbled upon the images on Google after searching for results on her own son Riley, who is a budding footballer.

She said: ‘I have never ever Googled my children before but I was just interested.

‘I just couldn’t believe Oliver’s photo was being used about an actual child abuse case.

‘It’s terrifying to think someone has used such an innocent photo in this way. It has scared me to death.’

She and husband Gary, 43, tried to contact the website directly to demand the photo be taken down but got no reply for weeks.

Instead, Jodie managed to get the photos removed after contacting WordPress – the website host – directly.

The blog had a Facebook page where it posted its photos and articles until becoming inactive in February 2016.

Photos of Oliver are still featured on that page, which features more than 3,100 pictures of children, despite his mum’s efforts to contact Facebook to ask for the photos to be removed.

Jodie said: ‘I have reported it to Facebook but have heard nothing back at all.

‘It’s a huge invasion of privacy. It makes you realise how careful you have to be with what you post online.’

She added that she had posted countless photos of her family online since 2014 but has since removed all photos of Oliver, nine, Riley, eight, Archie, four and Orla-Mae, three – from social media and has now made her Facebook account private.

She urged other parents to be cautious about what they post online and to check their privacy settings.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Lighting Their Way Home for comment.