Prolific paedophile David Wilson, 36, who posed as girls online is jailed for 25 years 

Prolific paedophile David Wilson who posed as girls online to get young boys to send him indecent images of themselves and other children has been jailed for 25 years.

The former youth team coach, 36, persuaded victims aged four to 14 to give him the material before blackmailing them into sending more extreme videos.

Wilson – of King’s Lynn, Norfolk – used unregistered phones to send sexual images of young women from the internet in exchange for the boys sending him videos and images of themselves.

Wilson built up trust with his victims before blackmailing them into sending him more extreme footage of themselves – and in some cases, of them abusing younger siblings or friends. Some boys were left suicidal by the abuse.

The National Crime Agency, which had investigated Wilson for two years, described him as one of the most prolific child sexual abuse offenders they had come across. 

Appearing today at Ipswich Crown Court, he was jailed for 25 years after admitting 96 child sex abuse offences. 

Former roofer Wilson set up a series of fake social media profiles, using unregistered phones, to send images of girls from the internet to young boys in exchange for the boys sending him videos and images of themselves, the NCA said.

Wilson then threatened to distribute these online unless they sent more extreme footage of themselves, in some cases of them abusing younger siblings or friends, the agency said.

The 52 victims in the case were all boys aged between four and 14 and the offending happened between May 2016 and April 2020.

The offences included causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, causing a child to watch a sexual act, and arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child.

Wilson also admitted making unwarranted demands for indecent images of a child with menace, threatening to post an indecent image on social media if they did not comply.

Wilson would not have been brought to justice without evidence from Facebook, according to the NCA.

Rob Jones, the agency’s director of threat leadership, said the social media giant’s proposed move to an end-to-end encryption privacy model ‘poses an existential threat to child protection’ online.

A Facebook spokesman said: ‘Child exploitation and grooming have no place on our platforms.’

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK charity involved in finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet, said: ‘This kind of offending is becoming a marked threat to children and, sadly, we are seeing more and more material being shared online which children have been tricked, bullied, coerced, or blackmailed into making themselves.

‘We know there are whole communities of predators out there, and that they are looking to contact children and abuse them from afar, often in the apparent safety of their own bedrooms.

‘Parents need to have frank discussions with their children, and let them know they can go to them if they see anything or are approached by someone online.’