AN ASHTON man described by police as a ‘sexual predator’ has been jailed for 14 years for a host of offences involing young girls.
Kyle Lees admitted a total of 35 offences, including making indecent images of a child, possessing extreme pornography, blackmail and causing child pornography.
Greater Manchester Police’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team uncovered the 21-year-old’s sick actions – which included blackmailing his victims who were as young as 14 – on a
dark-web site.
It was part of co-ordinated action in a number of countries to target paedophiles and Lees was arrested at his Ann Street home.
From there a 10-month-long investigation exposed the full extent of his actions.
Lees created several fake online male and female profiles when contacting his victims, who were all girls aged between 14 and 16 at the time and would get material from them before threatening to release pictures.
Victims were mostly from the USA, although one teenage girl from Greater Manchester was also found to have been one, with some coerced into sexual activity with animals.
Lees pleaded guilty to nine counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, three of causing child pornography, three of making indecent images of a child, one of possession of extreme pornography, three of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity, 11 of attempting to cause sexual exploitation of a child and five of blackmail.
He was jailed for 14 years at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court and a further five on licence. He has indefinitely been signed to the sex offenders’ register and given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.
Detective Inspector Suzanne Keenaghan, of GMP’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: “Kyle Lees is an abhorrent, calculated and manipulative sexual predator who was a significant danger to teenage girls online and it’s of great satisfaction that he will now begin a significant spell behind bars for his sickening crimes.
“Lees would hunt out vulnerability and blackmail his victims into doing unthinkable acts purely for his own sexual pleasure, and it is clear he got braver over time when he was sat behind his computer screen embarking on this depraved campaign which ruined the lives of innocent children.
“I must pay tribute to the survivors of this abuse and their families for their bravery and support during this investigation and I hope that seeing Lees put behind bars brings some element of closure.
“This has been a gruelling but highly-rewarding investigation and has demonstrated the strength of our collaboration with partners around the world in working together to identify suspects and do all we can to bring them to justice, while protecting victims and ensuring we can do all we can to help them and their families move on with their lives.
“Lees has been starkly reminded – in case he needed it – that his actions in the digital world have real world consequences and for too long he thought he was able to commit such grave acts of criminality without punishment.
“Let this serve as a warning for any offenders out there that police and partners worldwide continue to work tirelessly to target suspects and ultimately bring them to justice.”