Depraved Dudley paedophile who groomed girls on Snapchat to get explicit videos to share with other perverts jailed
A depraved Dudley paedophile who convinced girls as young as 12 on Snapchat to send him sexual videos that he shared online has been jailed for 11 years.
Joshua Smith, 27, found his victims on Snapchat, an app which he had multiple profiles pretending to be a child. After gaining their confidence pretending he would send them a list of sexual positions he wanted them to perform and send him the pictures.
After being arrested by West Midlands Police in 2021, officers found evidence of more young girls he had met online and even more depraved videos, one included a toddler being tortured and 20 minute compilation of sickening videos showing children being violently sexual abused.
Smith had several Snapchat accounts in different names and would swap from one to another to avoid being caught. He was also in contact with other paedophiles, and even had a manual giving instructions how to groom and abuse young girls.
After being bailed whilst police carried out their investigation Smith, of Robert Street, Lower Gornal, continued to recruit more victims to send him sick videos. His crimes stretched back to 2019 but despite forensically analysing his devices police officers could not track down some victims.
Smith was sentenced to 18 various sex crimes at Wolverhampton Crown Court including engaging in sexual communication with a 12-year-old, two 13-year-olds and 14-year-old girl, the penetration of another child and possessing category A, B and C child pornography.
The mother of one of Smith's victims told the court she "will never get the image out of her mind" after seeing a sexualised photo her daughter sent to Smith.
One of his victims bravely told the court: "I am not the same girl as I was before this happened. I used to be a bright bubbly girl and now I am closed off and insecure. This will be forever part of my life."
Judge Jonathan Gosling KC told Smith: "Your crimes had a huge impact on your victims. You would pretend to be a child and then using the same method by telling them they were not old enough to talk about sex with you.
"You then would send them a list of sexual demands which you said would 'get you off'. We have heard how your crimes effected these girls and their families."
He added: "That you continued to commit these crimes whilst on bail shows me you are a danger to the public. Your depraved behaviour can only merit a custodial sentence."
He added: "If I added each offences sentence up it could be over 30 years but because of totality I will not do that and several sentences run concurrently. I am sentencing you to 11 years imprisonment but you will be on licence for a further four years. And you will be subject to a detailed sexual harm prevention order."
