Description
Samuel Morris has pleaded guilty to 40 counts of sexual offences against children aged between 11-15yrs old. He was sent to prison for 11 years and has also been given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
Morris offences included inciting children to engage in penetrative activity, inciting sexual activity and numerous offences of sexual communication with a child.
Morris also pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children of Category A, B, C, extreme pornography and prohibited images and to the distribution of indecent images of children online.
South Wales Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT) conducted a thorough and complex online investigation which resulted in children being identified within the UK as well as in USA and Australia.
POLIT detectives identified that Morris had been posing as a 16 year-old boy on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat to meet children and establish a relationship.
He encouraged children to send indecent images of themselves which he captured with screen recording equipment and saved to his devices before sharing a number of these with other sex offenders via online forums.
The investigation resulted in 31 children aged between 11 and 15 years old being identified as victims.
Due to the complex and thorough investigation conducted by South Wales Police Detectives from the Specialist Crime, Police Online Investigation Team led to an early guilty plea and todays sentence.