Fake schoolgirl who groomed children jailed
AMAN who created fake social media accounts posing as a schoolgirl to prey on youngsters online has been jailed.
James Bird, who was given a community sentence in 2014 when he pleaded guilty to a raft of disturbing offences, has now been jailed after admitting 42 counts of child sexual exploitation charges.
The 31-year-old, originally from Stockport, groomed young victims online, threatening to kill them if they didn’t send him indecent images.
Bird, of HMP Preston, pleaded guilty to 42 charges an at earlier hearing, including causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and causing a child to watch a sexual act.
In February 2016, Bird was arrested for breaching the terms of a sexual harm prevention order imposed in August 2014, having pleaded guilty to 19 offences of making and distributing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child.
He was sentenced to a three-year community order, five-year sexual offence prevention order and five-year sexual offence notification requirement.
GMP officers seized Bird’s mobile phones and found he had been masquerading as a young female schoolchild, contacting children aged between 11 and 14 online.
Once he had made initial contact, he gained his victims’ trust and encouraged them to engage in sexual activity and expose themselves to him, before sending his own indecent images.
Bird tried to blackmail some children to make them bow to his demands, but when his victims refused, he threatened to kill or hurt people they cared about.
He was sentenced to nine years in jail at Preston Crown Court and will spend six years on licence.
Bird was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and will remain on the sexual offender register for life.
Bird pleaded guilty to seven counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity; six counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; 14 counts of breaching a sexual offences prevention order; four counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act; three counts of making indecent images of children; and four counts of distributing indecent images of a child.