David Wilson: Blackmailing sex offender has jail term increased

A man who posed as teenage girls online and blackmailed 52 boys into sending indecent images of themselves has had his jail term increased by three years.

David Wilson, 37, of King's Lynn in Norfolk, was labelled "sadistic" when jailed for 25 years in February after admitting 96 child sex abuse offences.

His case was referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient scheme.

The term was increased after it was ruled the original judge "fell into error by allowing full credit".

The victims of Wilson, a former roofer, of Kirstead, were aged between four and 14 and his crimes took place between 2016 and 2020, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

He posed at teenage girls on Facebook and won victims' trust by sending sexual images of young women in exchange for photographs and videos of the victims themselves.

From his bedroom in Kirstead, King's Lynn, David Wilson built a web of false personas to target thousands of children both in the UK and abroad

Wilson then threatened to distribute these online unless they sent more extreme footage of themselves, in some cases of them abusing younger siblings or friends.

The NCA said it had evidence that he approached more than 5,000 children globally, with as many as 500 sending Wilson abuse material.

Sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court earlier this year, Judge Rupert Overbury described Wilson as a "serial paedophile" and "an extremely dangerous individual".

• The roofer who groomed children over Facebook

• Sexual abuser blackmailed boys using Facebook

• 'Sadistic' sex offender who posed as girls jailed

At the Court of Appeal on Thursday, Paul Jarvis, for the Solicitor General, who referred the case to the court, argued for a life sentence.

Michael Clare, for Wilson, who appeared via videolink, argued a life sentence was not suitable, telling the court only three of the 96 offences had maximum sentences of life.

CCTV footage showed Wilson buying a top-up voucher for a mobile phone linked to his offending

Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Henshaw and Judge Martyn Zeidman QC, said Wilson was "callously indifferent", adding: "The victims were greatly distressed, they begged and pleaded the offender not to disclose the photos."

He continued: "In this case, notwithstanding the seriousness of the offending, the judge was, in our view, entitled to conclude that a life sentence was not justified."

However, the judges agreed with Mr Jarvis that Wilson's sentence was reduced too much based on his eventual guilty pleas.

Lord Justice Holroyde said he accepted that Wilson had faced problems properly accessing his lawyers because of the pandemic, but added he had not indicated his intention to plead guilty at the first stage.

"We accept Mr Jarvis' submission that the judge fell into error by allowing full credit."