Man paid children to perform sex acts in their school uniform after contacting them on Snapchat, TikTok and Skype

Lorcan Elliott, 25, from Orton Southgate, contacted 26 victims aged between 13 and 16 through social media and gaming platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, Skype and KIK.

He would trawl through internet sites where youngsters posted details of their Snapchat accounts, selecting the victims. He searched mainly for young boys and would add them as contacts.

He enticed them to pose and perform sex acts with the promise of receiving hundreds of pounds – paying more if they co-operated with his demands.

He then took images of the victims and distributed them to other victims suggesting they would receive money if they did the same. He showed the children receipts claiming to have paid other victims already.

One of the victims was a young boy with autism who was groomed to carry out a sexual act. He also had images on his phone of children as young as eight.

He was arrested in May last year following a police investigation which identified him as living at an address in Peterborough.

Police carried out a search at the Peterborough home and seized phones and laptops and a gaming tower discovering more than 1,200 indecent images of children, including 142 in the highest category of offending.

This week, at Cambridge Crown Court, Elliott, from Orton Southgate, Peterborough, was jailed for four years and eight months. He pleaded guilty to five counts of making and distributing indecent photographs of children, and eight counts of inciting sexual activity and nine counts of sexual communication.

PC Alex Cochrane said: “The offences were committed over a sustained period with numerous victims here and abroad and it is clear Elliott knew they were children because some were wearing their school uniform.

“Although there was no physical contact between the defendant and the victims, this case highlights the potential dangers of online activity with unknown people.

“As a force we work tirelessly to detect and prosecute these types of crimes while protecting the vulnerable children involved.”