Web sex pest claimed he was a friend of One Direction to groom schoolgirls
A MAN tried to convince teenage girls to expose themselves over a webcam by pretending to be friends with the pop band One Direction.
Joshua Craft, of Meadow View Road, Kennington, admitted four counts of causing or inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity and one count of possessing indecent images of children.
He told Judge Patrick Eccles that Craft, who was 18 and 19 at the time, targeted 10 girls last summer by using a special search engine to find fans of One Direction, known as Directioners.
Mr Shay said he then pretended to be friends with the band members and asked the girls to take their clothes off and touch themselves, although only one actually did.
The barrister said on one occasion he contacted a 15-year-old who was “vulnerable” and using “suicide terminology”, but refused to talk to her about it until she showed him her bra.
He also started a conversation with a girl by saying he knew One Direction, then called her a “slut” when she refused to strip on camera, Mr Shay said.
Jane Malcolm, defending, said her client suffered from Aspeger’s syndrome and struggled with social interactions.
Judge Eccles said Craft had demonstrated “a degree of persistence, planning and cunning” but he did not think it would be right to jail him.
Instead he made a three-year community order with a sex offenders rehabilitation programme, supervision, and told him to pay £350 costs and a £60 victims’ surcharge.
Craft was also made subject to a five-year sexual offences prevention order.
