A man who manipulated, blackmail and traumatised a 12-year-old for his own ‘twisted’ pleasure has been jailed for multiple child sex abuse crimes.
James Michael David Webber, 39, of Hollygarth Lane, Beal, near Selby, was sentenced to 13 years in prison at York Crown Court today (Friday).
He had previously been found guilty of seven offences including blackmail; two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; three counts of possession of indecent images of children; and possession of extreme pornography.
The court heard how, in May 2020, Webber manipulated and blackmailed a 12-year-old child to send explicit images of herself to him via SnapChat.
He threatened to harm her family as he claimed he could see where she lived as her location was visible through the app.
When the victim refused to send him further images, Webber callously distributed these images to others.
This caused significant harm to the victim’s mental health and wellbeing, the impact of which she will likely have to deal with for years.
Police praised the child’s “incredible courage” to come forward and contact them.
No remorse
Webber was located from his IP address.
Devices seized from Webber also located 97 Category A pictures – the worst kind of indecent images and videos of children; 149 Category B and 144 Category C indecent images of children; and four extreme pornography images and videos.
The court heard how Webber was continuing to create SnapChat accounts just days before his arrest.
He deleted the SnapChat app from his phone as police arrived – less than a minute before he was taken into custody for questioning.
DC Jenna Hallewell, the officer in charge of the investigation, said a key component of his conviction was the evidence extracted from Webber’s devices by North Yorkshire Police’s Digital Forensic Team.
“Webber denied the offences, showing no remorse for the twisted and vindictive behaviour against his victim that still impacts on her to this day,” she said.
“I’d like to pay tribute to the victim and her bravery in coming forward which has been incredible. Her courage means that Webber is no longer free to target and victimise children for his own pleasure.
“It is important that victims of such crimes come forward to assist police in locating perpetrators to put a stop to online abuse against children.”