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1 September 2012, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for child indecency offences.
Ryan Carlos Blakemore (21) formerly of Sileby pleaded guilty to inciting a child under 13 years to be involved in pornography and inciting a child under the age of 13 years to engage in sexual activity.
He was also issued with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) and will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life. He was sentenced yesterday (Friday August 31, 2012) at Leicester Crown Court. Between January and November 2011, Blakemore struck up a series of conversations with a 12-year-old girl on a social networking site.
During this time, he sent her indecent images of himself and continued to ask her to do the same. After his constant requests, the girl sent Blakemore a number of indecent photos of herself back to him.
Detective Constable Jenny Tattersall, the investigating officer, said: ?Despite this young girl making her age clear to Blakemore he sent her graphic images and engaged her in conversations using inappropriate sexual language. "People like Blakemore often prey on the vulnerability of young girls who don't always have the ability to say no or understanding of someone?s true intentions. He used his persuasion over 11 months to gradually talk her round and unfortunately she did not have the strength to tell someone what was happening.
"This case just goes to show the reasons why social networking sites have age restrictions as there are people who deliberately target children for this intention. "
There is a possibility that Blakemore may have contacted other young girls with the same purpose. We have issued a photo we know he used on his profile on social networking sites. If there is anyone who may have been contacted by Blakemore and they believe they may also have been a victim of a similar crime we would ask them to contact police."
Parents, teachers and youngsters can gain more information on protecting children online by visiting http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/