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A British former police officer has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of twelve years to be served, after pleading guilty to child abuse.
Among other things, he has threatened and blackmailed over 200 girls to send him challenging pictures of themselves on Snapchat.
The 24-year-old officer pretended to be a teenage boy on the app and targeted girls between the ages of 10 and 16, according to prosecutors. He got them to share pictures of themselves and then threatened many of the victims when they refused, blackmailing them into doing as he ordered.
In one of the cases, according to prosecutors, the man threatened to bomb the victim’s home and shoot her parents if she stopped sending him pictures.
The man joined South Wales Police in 2021 and was working there when most of the crimes were committed. He was arrested in February and has since pleaded guilty to around 160 counts of child abuse and extortion.