Youth who blackmailed girl over sex images is locked up
A Telford youth who ‘bullied and blackmailed’ a teenage girl to engage in sexual activity has been given three years detention.
Christopher Jones created explicit images of the victim after he made contact with her on the internet.
He had encouraged the 16-year-old to take off her clothes and threatened put the images on Facebook when she was reluctant to comply with his wishes.
At Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday Jones, now aged 19, was sentenced to a total of three years in a young offenders’ institution.
He must also be registered as a sex offender and a sexual harm prevention order will continue without limit.
Judge Peter Barrie told Jones that, having considered psychological and social inquiry reports, he had been close to deciding that the defendant should be considered dangerous and said it had been “a borderline” case.
The court heard Jones was convicted of inciting sexual activity with a girl in 2015 and made the subject of a referral order and a sexual harm prevention order.
Judge Barrie said Jones had failed to heed the “clearest warnings” about the lines that could not be crossed.
In June 2016 Jones bullied the older girl to engage in a sex act on the internet and threatened to put the material on Facebook.
In November the same year an 11-year-old girl had refused to do what he asked after Instagram exchanges.
Jones, of Westbourne, Woodside, had admitted offences of making indecent videos of a teenage girl and an offence of inciting sexual activity with a girl under 13.
Mrs Debra White, for Jones, said her client was immature and had become isolated after his first conviction and had started drinking alcohol.
She said there had also been an incident in which he and his mother were assaulted in their home after the offences were made public.
