Stuart Latham 22

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Today (Friday 19 September 2025), one of the most prolific child sexual predators even seen in the North West has been jailed for 14 years following investigations by Greater Manchester Police and Lancashire Police.

Stuart Latham, 22, from Wigan has been sentenced at Preston Crown Court to 49 offences including rape, sexual activity with a child, blackmail, sexual communication with children, inciting children to engage in sexual activity, and the creation, possession and distribution of indecent images, against 41 victims between the ages of 11 and 15, spanning the whole of the UK.

In 2023, Lancashire Police received a report that Latham, who was from Greater Manchester, had raped a girl in Heysham, who was aged 12 at the time of the offences.

He had met the girl on the social media app ‘Swiper’, where he had told her he was 15, despite being an adult. The girl had told him her age over messages.

Latham was arrested on suspicion of rape and a joint investigation with Greater Manchester Police later commenced.

Latham was arrested by GMP in April 2024, whilst on bail for the offences in Lancashire, following a referral made by US authorities via the National Crime Agency that a local man was having sexualised chat with children on Snapchat.

When officers arrived at his home address that very same day, Latham tried to conceal his mobile by throwing it to the back of his wardrobe. After our digital forensic experts were able to download and analyse this device, it was clear why he was keen to evade its discovery.

Despite denying all allegations in interview, his mobile revealed that he had ‘catfished’ a large number of young girls on Snapchat under the name ‘Josh’, posing as a 14-year-old boy. He would send mass messages to up to 200 girls at a time on the platform, initially asking for their help but not specifying what with, only to go onto request sexualised images and videos, sometimes offering cash and giftcards in return.

He would send them fake pictures, taken from the internet, to keep up this identity of being a teenager himself, and never paid any of the victims.

Once he had successfully lured the victims in, he would continue to demand more and more images, blackmailing them with threats to leak them or tell their parents, and exploiting their vulnerabilities if they didn’t send any. He would also send explicit videos and images of himself in response to what they had shared with him.

The chats with these children showed no care about their age or wellbeing, and were extremely explicit, graphic, and distressing in nature. He showed no remorse or accountability in any of his police interviews.

We were able to find Latham had spoken to 48 victims, bringing charges against him in 41 of those cases. Of the 41, eight of the children remain unidentified, but the rest we have been able to speak with and safeguard from further harm. That support will continue beyond today’s result.

Whilst we uncovered over 4,000 indecent images on Latham’s devices, we know that some data which had been deleted from his device before his initial arrest in Lancashire couldn’t be recovered, so the full scale of his offending could be much greater.

Detective Constable Emma Murtagh, from GMP’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, and who led this case, said:

“This is one of the most horrific cases I have ever had to investigate, not only due to the scale of the offending, but also due to the devastating impact and harm this this man’s behaviour and actions have had on these young girls and their families.

“We worked incredibly hard to identify as many victims as possible, listen to them, safeguard them and support them through this terrible ordeal. That has been our priority throughout and the victims living in very different locations has not been a barrier to this investigation.

“The impact has also been felt by all their parents and guardians, who understandably were very shocked and distressed to hear about what had been happening.

“This case demonstrates unfortunately the ease of which those looking to exploit children can target, manipulate and blackmail them online. 

“We encourage anyone who may find them in a situation like these young people to come forward to police. We are steadfast in our pursuit of holding child predators to account and protecting children, and will act on any information we receive.”

Detective Chief Inspector Dylan Hrynkow, of West Rape and Serious Sexual offences team said:

“This investigation was complex with cross border offending, due to excellent joint working we have been able to secure charges and  convictions for these horrendous offences.”

“This crime has understandably had a profound impact on the victim, who has shown incredible strength and bravery over a significant amount of time, throughout proceedings. I can only hope that the knowledge of Latham’s significant sentence will bring  some sense of closure in knowing he has been brought to justice.

“If you have been a victim of any sexual offending in Lancashire, I want you to know that we will listen to you, we will appropriately investigate, and we will do all we can to get you justice.”