Abuser first person jailed under Online Safety Act

Davies is the first person to be convicted for encouraging serious self-harm to a child under the Online Safety Act 2023

A man who encouraged a schoolgirl he groomed and sexually abused to cut herself has become the first person to be jailed for encouraging self-harm under the Online Safety Act.

Karl Davies, 42, a father-of-two from Wirral, pleaded guilty to and has been convicted of 17 offences relating to a school girl aged between 13 and 14.

He showed "no pity and no mercy" for the "catastrophic" impact on his victim and had a "monstrous sense of sexual entitlement", Manchester Crown Court heard earlier.

Davies, who has been jailed for 20 years, first made contact with the girl on Snapchat in June 2023, threatening and coercing her into sending him indecent images and videos of herself over the next year.

Using several aliases to stay in contact, he then picked her up from school in "broad daylight" to sexually abuse her in his car on four occasions in the summer of 2024.

Sentencing Davies, Judge Hilary Manley imposed an extended sentence on Davies to reflect his "depraved and sadistic" crimes.

'Abhorrent'

During the year of abuse Davies also encouraged or coerced his victim into filming herself committing acts of self-harm and bought her razors to facilitate this.

He is the first person to be convicted for encouraging serious self-harm to a child under Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023.

Under the bill, platforms must take action - such as carrying out age checks - to stop children seeing illegal and harmful material.

Judge Manley said: "To encourage a vulnerable young girl to inflict harm on herself for your sexual gratification really does plumb the depths of abhorrent behaviour."

Davies was arrested after his victim told her stepmother of the abuse, and a video of him sexually abusing the girl was found on her phone by police.

Despite admitting to the charges, Davies told probation services that he was not sexually interested in children, even though he abused the girl in her school uniform and told her she had a "good body for a 14-year-old", the court heard.

"Around June of 2023 a Snapchat account in the name of Ben Wild operated by the defendant, say the prosecution, added (the victim) in this case," said Huw Edwards, prosecuting.

Davies quickly ensured that the contact was "more than simply friendship" and sexual images were sent between the two, before he then put the girl in contact with another social media account.

"The prosecution's case has always been that each of these accounts or aliases is in fact the defendant pretending to be a different person," said Mr Edwards.

'Sinister'

Davies's wife caught the first of his aliases having contact with the teenage girl and confronted him, but he made excuses and it did not deter him.

Over time, the prosecution said, the aliases became "rather more sinister" threatening the girl and saying they would contact her father if she did not do as Davies asked.

"Your offending displays a monstrous sense of sexual entitlement and a sinister desire for control," said Judge Manley.

In June and July 2024, Davies drove to pick up the girl posing as "Mark" and made her perform sexual acts with him in four separate meetings.

Mr Edwards said: "Before the meeting Joey - aka the defendant - told her what she would be doing with Mark.

"Joey was the one who said to the victim you are to meet Mark and perform sexual acts upon him... She was told to record what they were doing, she did so and that was then shared with Joey on Snapchat."

The judge added that Davies had used "trickery, lies, manipulations and blackmail" to satisfy his "twisted appetite" with a high level of control and planning.

She deemed that Davies met the conditions for an extended sentence, which means he will remain on licence for five years on top of his custodial sentence.