Jailed: Four years for 'dangerous' teenager who posed as a girl then threatened boys over indecent images
A ‘dangerous’ teenager from Shropshire who posed as a girl to befriend boys online to get them to send him indecent photos has been jailed for a total of four years.
He had pretended to be female after befriending numerous youths, aged 14 and 15, on social media networks Snapchat, Instagram and phone apps.
Sentencing the 19-year-old, of Tenbury Road, Clee Hill, Judge Jonathan Gosling said only a custodial term would be appropriate.
He told Sloan that in his judgement only a custodial sentence would be appropriate.
The victims included a 14-year-old, whom Sloan told he would post an indecent photo of him online and send it to his friends unless he kept sending similar photos. The judge said the victim then got a phone call from the defendant telling him to pay £1,000 to keep the photos from going public.
Judge Gosling told him: “You carried out very serious crimes committed over two years. The victims were all very young. The offences escalated in severity and menace. Furthermore I have no hesitation in saying the defendant is dangerous. Firstly he has no empathy with his victims, no understanding of the damages caused.
“It escalated to demanding a meeting and making a request for money to satisfy his continuing desires and a continuation of offences.
He told Sloan that he was “controlling”and “enjoyed” using the situation as a means of exerting “power” over the boys who thought they were talking to a girl.
“You are an intelligent young man. You carried out these crimes ruthlessly. It is really chilling to read these messages,” he said.
The judge said some of the messages showed how the victims had begged the defendant not to carry out his threats to expose them.
“You created a fresh persona of a girl for each victim. You selected young boys because you knew they would do anything to prevent the pictures going online.
“You are a dangerous man. Any reduction in the sentence I have passed will be due to your age, lack of convictions and that you have had to wait a long time for these matters to come to court.”
The offences took place between May 2014 and October last year.
Sloan admitted five counts of sending malicious communications, two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, one charge of blackmail, two counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of distributing incident images of children and four charges of possessing indecent images of children at an earlier hearing.
Following his most recent arrest more than 150 images were found on a laptop seized from his home.
Mr Stephen Scully, mitigating, said Sloan was “at high risk of further sexual offending”.
Judge Gosling said he must serve at least half of the total four-year term before being released on licence. He will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
