An online predator from Leeds who forced more than 100 people into sex acts and self harm, making victims carve his username into their bodies, has been jailed.
Justin Swaddle used platforms such as Snapchat, Telegram and Discord to “prey” on victims from across the world “like a shark”, a sentencing judge said on Monday.
He was 17 when he preyed upon people he met online under myriad usernames, including ‘Epstein’, ‘Rugen’ and ‘Moscow’.
Now aged 20, Swaddle – from Meanwood in Leeds – has been jailed for two years after detectives at the National Crime Agency discovered hundreds of conversations with girls of a sexual nature on his phone and computer.
Investigators found Swaddle had been operating in a Com group – an online community using messaging apps and gaming platforms for carrying out crimes such as targeting young girls for sexual reasons.
According to the NCA, motives for Com groups are more to do with the power and notoriety which comes with sharing shocking content with other members, rather than money or sexual gratification.
Some 117 victims aged between 13 and 17 were able to be identified – eight of whom were in the UK.
One of Swaddle’s victims told police how he had asked her to send nude photographs of herself and to carve his name into her body.
The girl had complied with Swaddle’s requests after her threatened her, telling her he had her personal details and knew where she went to school.
An examination of Swaddle’s messages on the encrypted chat app Telegram also found he had attempted to incite a child into sexually abusing a younger child and record it, threatening to leak indecent images if they didn’t comply with his request.
Swaddle was ultimately charged with and pleaded guilty to eight sexual offences, including three of inciting a child into engaging in a sexual activity, as well as a count of blackmail.
He was sentenced to two years at Leeds Crown Court on Monday. His Honour Judge Peter Kelson KC described it as one of the most extreme cases he had ever seen and branded him a “predatory shark preying on children swimming in the dark waters of the internet”.
Swaddle was also made subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and made to sign the Sex Offenders Register.
Danielle Pownall, Operations Manager from the NCA, said: “Justin Swaddle targeted young and vulnerable victims all over the world to abuse and scare them into carrying out shocking self-harm and sexual activity, purely to gain popularity with his peers online.
“He gained the trust of his victims, before collecting private information about them so he could threaten to share their intimate images or report them to their school or parents to incite further content.
“While the number of people involved in Com groups are relatively small, the impact it has on victims is high and long-lasting, as Swaddle’s offending shows.”
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