A man pose as a girl to abuse and blackmail schoolboys online

A man from Glastonbury, a town in England has been arrested and jailed for 12 years after he posed as a teen girl asking for nude photos of schoolboys and manipulating them to send videos of them abusing other children.

As per the National Crime Agency report, the man was identified as Oliver Derbidge and has been involved in sexual interest with young boys across child abuse forums. Derbidge, 25 years of age, has created fake online accounts with a connection to a Australian Offender who was also involved with this fraud.

How did the man pose as a girl?

NCA seized his devices and found indecent images of several teen boys, with a record of blackmailing a boy to abuse another. After some detailed forensics and investigation, it is found that the convict has been doing this act since 2016. He had used the teen girl name Emily Beecham and sent friend requests to teen boys via Snapchat, and even shared some naked pics of a female to make it look like an legitimate account.

As per NCA report, there are 23 boys in the range of 11-16 years of age who have been affected by Derbidge’s cyber crime. The cyber fraudster had also forced the boys to send additional images and videos, if else he would share the sent images with his family and friends.

The Taunton Crown Court has sentenced Derbidge for 12 years in prison on Jan 14th, and has been given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.

“Protecting children from sexual abusers is a priority for the NCA. We will use all the tools at our disposal to ensure those offenders who think they can hide online are identified and brought to justice” – Phil  Eccles, Senior Investigating Officer, NCA.

Communicate with your children to protect them

Parents are advised to know their children’s whereabouts, friends, and who they communicate with over online. Child abuse doesn’t need to be a physical one, a mental one could be devastating for the kids or teenagers and only with proper parental support and guidance we can fight against such actors.

Appreciation to NCA for acting on this crime, and helping the victims stay comfortable during their investigation. Eccles added “His abuse has had a profound impact on these vulnerable young victims who have been extremely brave throughout the course of our investigation”

If parents are concerned about your child, or someone’s behavior towards your child, please report it to your local police on 101 if you’re based out of UK.

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