Sex offender David John Andrews who abused nearly 50 children after posing as a teenage boy online is jailed
A prolific sex offender who abused nearly 50 children after posing as a teenage boy on Snapchat and Instagram has been jailed for 27 years.
David John Andrews, 55, from Northern Ireland, had pleaded guilty to 130 charges of sexual abuse, which involves 47 victims, 46 of whom are children.
His youngest victim was an eight-year-old girl.
Most of the offences relate to so-called catfishing, where a person pretends to be someone else online to deceive others, but some relate to the direct abuse of a vulnerable adult woman.
Police have said it is clear his offending, which involved coercing victims into sending him nude photographs, spread across the UK.
His offences included attempted rape, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, sexual communication with a child, blackmail, attempting to pay for sexual services of a child, attempting to arrange or facilitate child prostitution or pornography and making and possessing indecent images of children.
Many of the crimes took place between 2019 and 2020, with Andrews having been on remand for more than four years.
Delivering sentence, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC said he would not detail Andrews' offending in full as it was "too harrowing and vile to be repeated".
PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Jill Duffie described Andrews, whose address was listed as Maghaberry Prison, as a "heinous child predator".
-SKY NEWS
