Blackpool schoolboy behind Snapchat porn racket given sex order in court

If they did not agree to his demands to send him explicit pictures to his mobile phone he said he would take revenge by harming their mothers and sending pictures he had already received around their school, a court heard.

Yesterday he was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and is believed to be the youngest ever male to get such an order in the UK.

The 15-year-old stood in his school blazer and tie as a judge heard how he used a an app on his phone called Calculator Vault to hide his collection.

Girls who succumbed to his threats and pestering may have thought by using Snapchat to send him pictures they would disappear after several seconds. But the youngster who attends a school on South Shore had a device fitted to his phone which allowed them to be stored.

The boy admitted two offences of taking and distributing indecent images of children – girls from his school – over a 14-month period.

He was caught when a mother found a porn image of her daughter on the girl’s mobile phone.

He also admitted inciting a 12-year-old to commit sexual acts four offences under the Protection of Children Act of making and distributing indecent photographs.

District Judge Jeff Brailsford sitting at Blackpool Magistrates Court: “There is clear evidence you put pressure on these girls to comply with your demands. You said some of the pictures would be shared if they did not agree. That is just awful.

“These offences are so serious you could be locked up now. But I have to take into account that locking you up would not help you draw a line under your behaviour.

“You need to respect and develop a preoper attitude to the girls around you.”

Making the defendant the subject of the Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and telling him to sign the Sex Offender’s Register, the judge warned him that he would be jailed if he breached the terms of the order.

Alex Mann, prosecuting, said: “These are very serious offences. He pressured the girls to send him pictures and videos of themselves naked.”

She revealed that the teen had been officially warned twice before about similar behaviour. His lawyer Brett Chappell said: “The boy’s parents are beside themselves – they are horrified about what he has been doing. He was getting images – sinsister images – and hiding them using a special app on his phone.

“It was a sophisticated cover up and he bullied girls into complying.”

The defendant was placed on a 12-month Referral Order during which he will receive counselling.

His SHPO bans him from inciting girls under 16 to send him images and videos of a sexually explicit nature.

He must not use any computer to view pictures of children.He must not have any software designed to delete on encrypt explicit images.

He is forbidden to have any intimate pictures of girls aged under 16 save with the permission of their parent or guardian. And he is forbidden from asking any girl aged under 16 to show him her private parts.

The judge also awarded £110 court costs which will have to be paid by his parents.