Paedophile blackmailed victims into abusing others
APAEDOPHILE who tricked scores of youngsters across the world into sending him nude selfies then blackmailed them into sexually abusing young relatives on camera has been jailed for 16 years.
Remorseless Paul Leighton, who created up to 40 fake Facebook profiles to befriend teenagers in the UK, Canada, the US and Australia, admitted three counts of rape despite being thousands of miles away when the offences happened.
One 14-year-old from Florida was tricked into believing he was talking to a girl, then blackmailed into repeatedly raping his one-year-old niece.
Leighton threatened the teenager that he would post videos of the abuse online if he did not do more.
The boy has since been charged by the US authorities.
Sentencing Leighton to 16 years with a six-year extended licence, Judge Robert Adams told him: “You have effectively destroyed the lives of these people against whom you made these threats.”
The judge ruled Leighton was “clearly dangerous” and posed a risk to children in the UK and abroad.
Leighton blackmailed two British teenage girls and also sexually abused a nine-year-old girl living in the north-east of England. The FBI is investigating other victims Leighton may have targeted.
Leighton, 32, from Malvern Crescent, Seaham, County Durham, was arrested in November by police investigating reports he had exchanged indecent images on Facebook.
When officers examined his phone they found evidence that as many as 100 children in America had been abused.
The spray-painter appeared at Newcastle Crown Court where he was sentenced for blackmail, raping a child under 13, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photographs of a child, sexual assault, possessing cannabis, distributing indecent images of a child and possession of an indecent video.
Outside court, Detective Sergeant Peter Morgan said it was the worst case of his career.
“He was calculated and sophisticated in his approach to this abuse and his lack of thought for his victims is spine-chilling.”