Dark web paedophile jailed for 14 years after admitting 35 child sex offences

An ‘abhorrent and manipulative’ paedophile described as a ‘significant danger to teenage girls online’ has been jailed for 14 years for a string of child sex offences. Kyle Lees, 21, was brought to justice after a huge international police operation to bring down an online chatroom used by paedophiles on the dark-web to exchange extreme images and plot how to abuse children.

Lees, of Tameside, was sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Friday after admitting a total of 35 offences – including making indecent images of a child; possessing extreme pornography; blackmail; and causing child pornography, GMP said. He was arrested at his home in June 2021 after he was believed to be behind one of the user accounts on the site.

During a 10 month-long investigation, officers from GMP’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team found he had created several fake online male and female profiles to contact his victims, who were all girls aged between 14 and 16. Analysis of his online accounts revealed he had attempted to contact around 3,500 profiles on several social media and chat room sites.

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Police say Lees would ‘prey on vulnerabilities’ by obtaining material from victims then use it as blackmail to get more; threatening them by saying he would release the pictures to his family or on the internet. Some victims were coerced into sexual activity with animals, which Lees would ask for content of for his own sexual gratification.

Most of Lees’ victims were from the United States, which he would target because the time difference meant his victims would be awake while he was online during the night in the UK. The victims also included one teenage girl from Greater Manchester, who is now being supported by specialists.

Police said Lees pleaded guilty to nine counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity; three counts of causing child pornography; three counts of making indecent images of a child; one count of possession of extreme pornography; three counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity; 11 counts of attempting to cause sexual exploitation of a child and five counts of blackmail.

He was jailed for 14 years with a further five years on licence, will be indefinitely been signed to the sex offenders’ register and also given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order. Det Insp Suzanne Keenaghan, of GMP’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: “Kyle Lees is an abhorrent, calculated and manipulative sexual predator who was a significant danger to teenage girls online and it’s of great satisfaction that he will now begin a significant spell behind bars for his sickening crimes.

“Lees would hunt out vulnerability and blackmail his victims into doing unthinkable acts purely for his own sexual pleasure, and it is clear he got braver over time when he was sat behind his computer screen embarking on this depraved campaign which ruined the lives of innocent children. I must pay tribute to the survivors of this abuse and their families for their bravery and support during this investigation and I hope that seeing Lees put behind bars brings some element of closure.

“This has been a gruelling but highly-rewarding investigation and has demonstrated the strength of our collaboration with partners around the world in working together to identify suspects and do all we can to bring them to justice, while protecting victims and ensuring we can do all we can to help them and their families move on with their lives. Today Lees has been starkly reminded – in case he needed it – that his actions in the digital world have real world consequences, and for too long he thought he was able to commit such grave acts of criminality without punishment; let this serve as a warning for any offenders out there that police and partners worldwide continue to work tirelessly to target suspects and ultimately bring them to justice.”