Locations
Davies Row, Swansea, Wales, SA5
Description
A "depraved sex offender" from Swansea who targeted scores of young children online has been sent to prison.
Police discovered more than 2,000 indecent images and videos of children on devices belonging to 20-year-old Caleb Courtman, some of which he had sourced directly from child victims he had groomed.
Courtman had engaged in sexually explicit conversations with them after approaching them on social media platforms, and then bullied and blackmailed them into sending explicit images and into performing sex acts on camera.
Some of the children were as young as nine.
142 have been identified and safeguarded by South Wales Police but work is ongoing to identify all the children that Courtman contacted.
The court heard the police investigation showed that over the course of many months Courtman sent the children explicit photographs of himself and talked about them coming to his home in Swansea for sex.
He was given an extended 24-year sentence in a young offenders institution and will be a registered sex offender for life.
Dyfed Thomas, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court the offending came to light in December last year after police received information that indecent images had been uploaded to the internet via accounts linked to Courtman.
He was arrested and his phones and laptops were seized. He was released on bail.
The prosecutor said while on bail Courtman continued to offend, with his offending becoming "ever more insidious". He was arrested again in February this year.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said it was clear Courtman was a "deeply entrenched paedophile" who posed a "quite exceptionally high risk of serious harm" to young girls in the future.
Caleb Courtman, aged 20, of Davies Row, Treboeth, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to 35 offences of engaging in sexual communications with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, possession of indecent images of categories A, B, and C, distribution of an indecent image, voyeurism, and blackmail when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. Another 98 offences were taken into consideration.
Jon Tarrant, for Courtman, said there was little mitigation he could put forward other than the age of the defendant and his guilty pleas, and he said he accepted an extended sentence was inevitable in the case.
Detective Constable Natalie Revers from South Wales Police said: "This has been a shocking and disturbing investigation and I would like to thank the families and children who have supported the police investigation and commend their bravery in speaking out.
"I would also like to thank others involved in the wider investigation for their hard work and assistance over the past seven months, and for their ongoing support.
“We urge anyone who believes they may have been victim of online sexual abuse to report it to police. They will be treated with dignity and compassion by our officers and the support services with whom we work closely.”