Two men who coerced teenage girls to self-harm before sharing their images online jailed
Two men who forced defenseless young girls to seriously harm themselves and then taunted them online have been jailed.
Charlie Johnson, 24, and Prince Singh, 23, asked for their victims to be “scarred for life” after encouraging them to write names for themselves.
They then shared footage of these actions in an online chat room.
Johnson and Singh were charged in April 2025 with a string of offenses relating to the two girls, who were 16 and 17 at the time of the offences.
The crimes took place throughout 2024 and into January 2025.
Johnson, who was found guilty of physically abusing both girls, was sentenced to four years in prison and Singh was sentenced to two years and nine months.
Sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Ruth Downing said the two men came together because of their “mutual interest” in encouraging “school girls” to harm themselves.
Judge Downing said: “I am of the view that both men have a deeply unhealthy interest in the idea of encouraging others, young women and inevitably women, to harm themselves.”
The judge also stated that the pair treated their “deliberately planned actions” as a “game” and chose defenseless victims.
At the sentencing hearing, two victims described the extreme and long-lasting effects of their actions.
One of the girls said Johnson, who was in his 20s when they met, “weaponized” her youth and still had “nightmares of abuse.”
She said: “Even when he hurt me, I was made to feel like everything was my fault.”
She added: “For a long time, emotionally, I felt worthless, felt expendable, and even felt guilty for facing the consequences of it.”
This case marks the first time defendants have been convicted by jury trial of assisting or encouraging serious self-harm under the Online Safety Act 2023.
While Singh and others have pleaded guilty to such crimes, Johnson’s trial was the first time they had been tried in court.
The court heard the defendants would share “nude” and self-harming images they had received in a Discord group they ran together.
The indecent image offenses for which both men are charged relate to one of the two women.
The prosecution said that after contact between Johnson and the victim, which began when she was 16 and living in a children’s home, Singh began texting her “giving the impression that he cared”.
Singh revealed his “true views” in a Discord server with Johnson, saying “I’m going to ruin his life” and expressing his desire to leave him “scarred for life”.
He wrote: “Stage one; make friends, stage two; learn the name of the school and workplace, stage three; sit back and drink a juicy puppy while his life goes to shit.”
Judge Downing said “this is truly deeply disturbing speech” that shows the intentions behind these actions.
Evidence of indecent images of the girls and encouragement to self-harm was found on various devices taken from the defendants’ bedrooms when they were arrested.
The court heard these included pictures and testimonials of other girls who were not involved in the trial.
One of the victims told the court on Wednesday she was “proud” they came forward despite the trauma she suffered.
“We knew we had to say something to prevent this from happening to other girls in the future,” she said.
Jessica Lunan, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Charlie Johnson and Prince Singh committed devastating acts of violence and coercion against their defenseless young victims.
“Through online chat rooms, they exploited and preyed on young girls from across the UK by illegally sharing indecent images of them and encouraging them to harm themselves.
“Our prosecutors work tirelessly to protect victims and bring offenders to justice. Sharing indecent images of children is a criminal offense and those who do so will face the full force of the law.”
Johnson was convicted after trial on two counts of encouraging self-harm, two counts of distributing indecent images of a child and three counts of assault by beating.
He admitted two counts of making an indecent image, while Singh admitted producing and distributing indecent images of a child, as well as encouraging one of the victims to commit serious self-harm.
Johnson and Singh each received prison sentences for the most serious self-harm offenses and concurrent sentences for other offences.
Both men will serve half their sentences in custody and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years.
