‘Vile’ online groomer is first in UK to be jailed for encouraging a child to self-harm | Crime

A “disgusting and sadistic” online groomer has been jailed for 20 years for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl whom he encouraged to self-harm, in a legal first in Britain.

Karl Davies contacted the “extremely vulnerable” schoolgirl via gaming app Discord and targeted her for months using fake profiles on Snapchat.

The victim was 13 when she first received a message from Davies, 43, whom she thought was a teenage boy.

The girl, who is in care and has a learning disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was tricked into sending explicit videos and images of herself harming herself.

Imposing the sentence, which would include a 20-year prison sentence plus a further five years on license due to the seriousness of the offences, Judge Manley described Davies as “depraved and sadistic” and said he had “descended to the depths of abhorrent behaviour”.

“You have displayed a terrifying sense of sexual entitlement and a sick desire for control, and you will do anything to get what you want,” Manley said. “For a year after your arrest, your victim was deprived of education and friends. You not only destroyed his childhood and adolescence, you also destroyed his family.”

Davies, a married father of two, used stolen Facebook profiles to create fake identities on Snapchat and used them to threaten the teenager into sending more abusive images.

He then posed as a user named Mark to act as Mark’s “savior” and protect him from other fictitious accounts he controlled.

Davies sexually assaulted the girl multiple times in his car between June and July last year, after driving 80 kilometers to pick her up from school. On one occasion, the man brought a razor and encouraged her to harm herself on video, which she later did.

Police described Davies as a “family man” with no previous criminal record. However, the Guardian has learned that he was arrested about five years ago on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, but prosecutors dropped the case.

The National Crime Agency arrested Davies in November 2020, three years before he targeted the schoolgirl, and decided not to charge him by submitting a dossier of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The NCA said it was sharing its intelligence with police forces to assist future investigations.

Davies, a quantity surveyor from Wirral on Merseyside, was arrested in February this year after the victim in this case gave a harrowing three-hour interview to police.

He was jailed on Friday after becoming the first person to be prosecuted in the UK for encouraging a child to self-harm, an offense under the Online Safety Act 2023.

Stacey Gosling, of the CPS, said she had “never seen such sophisticated methods used to target a young person”. He added: “Karl Davies went to great lengths to conceal his identity and position himself as the child’s guardian.”

The defendant, who police say showed no signs of remorse, admitted 17 offenses, including 10 of sexual activity with a child, at Manchester crown court in May.

DS Robert Griffiths, of Manchester police, described the attacker as “sadistic” and said police believed Davies would try to target other young girls, although they were not aware of any other victims.

“It’s much easier for a criminal to sit in the living room and send a bunch of messages and wait for the replies to come through, which is the worrying and most concerning aspect of online abuse,” he said.

Davies first contacted the young man via Discord in 2023. Police were first alerted after the girl told her schoolmate that she had gotten into a car with a man in July 2024.

At this point the victim refused to cooperate with the investigation. He was assigned to a social worker who gained his confidence for six months and the victim was eventually able to have a three-hour police interview.

Not knowing Davies’ real identity, the girl eventually identified one of the dates she picked him up from school and led police to the perpetrator. He was then able to identify the make and model of the Seat Ateca car he had hired to commit his crimes, allowing police to track his movements from Merseyside.

Davies was arrested at his parents’ home after police linked him to fake Discord and Snapchat accounts.

Police discovered that Davies’ wife suspected Davies of having an affair and called the girl’s number, but the victim hung up.

Griffiths said it was “very worrying” that someone previously unknown to police would commit such “disgusting and despicable” abuse.