September 2010

Sex offender caged for grooming schoolgirls

A sex offender has been jailed for grooming schoolgirls on the internet. Police found 4,000 videos of young girls when they seized the computer of IT worker Andrew Caffrey at his home in Irlam.

A significant number featured sexual activity and chat with schoolgirls. The 22-year-old had gained access to his victims online. Many of the girls were using a computer in their bedroom without their parents realising. Caffrey was caged for three years at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court after he admitted a series of sex offences against children.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and handed a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order which bars him from using internet chatrooms and a camera that connects to the internet.

Caffrey’s crimes started to unravel when the family of a schoolgirl in Northumberland contacted police in 2009. Footage of the girl performing a sex act had been posted by Caffrey onto the internet.

Detectives arrested Caffrey at his home in Irlam and found a collection of 27,000 chat logs and 4,000 videos of young girls. He had communicated with more than 10,000 people. He targeted girls aged between 12 and 15, engaging them in sex chat and encouraging them to use a web cam.

He even created two other identities, Jimbob and Rachel, to convince the girls he was a ‘good guy’ if they blocked his main profile. He also arranged to meet up with one of his victims, a girl from Greater Manchester, even though he knew she was under 16, later sexually exploiting her.

Caffrey, 22, of Denham Drive, Irlam, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act, 12 counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one count of the distribution of indecent photographs of a child. He also admitted two counts of possession of indecent photographs of a child, one count of meeting a child following sexual grooming, three counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child and one count of making indecent photographs of a child.

After the hearing, Det Con Andy Pilling, of Greater Manchester Police’s sexual crime unit, said: “Caffrey has been doing this in the privacy of his own bedroom for five years, targeting girls aged between 12 and 15 and exploiting their naivety.

“He would tell his victims that he would post videos of them online, if they didn’t do as he said, which was what led us to him in the first place. “He has upset so many families, including his own. Parents need to be aware of what their children could be exposed to.

“All the videos we found involved young girls in the privacy of their bedroom, on personal computers with their doors shut. I would urge parents to think about what your children are doing when they are on the internet. “Caffrey’s victims just want to forget this has happened and to get on with their lives.”