A Kennington man who posed as a model agency scout to manipulate children into sending indecent photographs has been jailed for eighteen years.
Ishmael Duncan, 24, exploited 28 female victims, some as young as nine, although investigators believe he contacted close to 10,000 children online.
He was convicted of 50 counts, including blackmail and child sex offences, at Inner London Crown Court in August, before being sentenced on Thursday, December 7.
One victim, who read an impact statement before the court, said: “Because of what you did to me, I isolated myself from my family and friends for months because I was disgusted with myself.
“Although I now know deep down that none of this was my fault, I still cannot help blaming myself and feeling some guilt.
“You have made me suffer for four years and I feel that what you did to me will stay with me forever.”
Duncan would approach potential victims via Snapchat and ask if they were interested in becoming models for well-known fashion brands.
The girls, who lived in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, would be asked for their age and personal details before he requested clothed images or videos.
Duncan would then request topless photos, saying he needed to assess victims’ body shapes and use them as a base for editing in potential clothes to be modelled.
He then created a new account to contact the same victims, sometimes months later, threatening to expose the images unless they agreed to send more images.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) began its investigation when two sisters in the US reported being threatened after sending explicit images to one of the accounts.
Through the analysis of IP data, the NCA was able to link Duncan to all the accounts. He was arrested in July 2021 at his home.
Separate from posing as a model scout, the NCA found he sometimes targeted other victims claiming to be a child of a similar age, requesting sexual images and videos.
Duncan blackmailed a 14-year-old girl with learning difficulties who sent him images, and also offered her $1,000 to engage in a sexual act with her brother.
Officers recovered 19,120 indecent images of children categories A-C (A being the most severe) from his electronic devices and cloud storage.
The NCA’s CEOP Education programme supports parents, carers, children and the professionals to ensure young people have safe and positive experiences online.
If someone is threatening a child online, including demanding nude images or money, it’s safest to not respond, and to block and report them to the site and the Police. Under 18 year olds worried about online sexual abuse, including online blackmail, can also report directly to the NCA’s CEOP Safety Centre by visiting www.ceop.police.uk