Ex teacher persuaded child to send explicit image

Michael Pierce, 32, Image source, west yorkshire policed
Image caption,

Michael Pierce, 32, has been jailed for six years

  • Published

A former West Yorkshire teacher has been jailed after pretending to be a 16-year-old boy and getting a child to send him sexual images.

Michael Pierce, 32, then sent the picture to another young girl after the first victim refused to send him any more nude images.

He pleaded guilty to various sexual offences at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday and was sentenced to six years.

Pierce, of Blackstone Drive, Shireoaks, Worksop, was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and given a life-long sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to have no unsupervised contact with children.

Posing as a teenager, Pierce befriended his first victim on Snapchat and asked the girl to send him explicit images.

When she refused to send more pictures, he threatened to send the photograph to all of her friends on Snapchat.

Pierce sent his second victim the photograph of the first victim and also asked her to send nude photographs of herself.

Police traced his IP address and Pierce was arrested at an address in Wakefield in August 2021.

The court heard he had been a teacher at the time the crimes were committed.

'Upsetting and scary'

Det Sgt Steven Sayles, from West Yorkshire Police, said Pierce had occupied a position of trust and had "targeted young girls and used threatening behaviour to try and exploit them into sending indecent images".

“These were horrible offences committed against vulnerable young girls," he added.

"I hope the conclusion of this court case brings some closure on an upsetting and scary time for them.”

Pierce was jailed after admitting causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, causing a child to watch a sexual act, inciting a child under 13 years to engage in sexual activity and distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

In addition to his jail term, he was also put on the sex offenders register for life and given a life-long sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to have no unsupervised contact with children.

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