A ‘highly dangerous sex predator’ who posed as a 14-year-old boy to target girls as young as 11 was jailed for 14 years today.
Stuart Latham, 22, targeted ‘young and vulnerable’ girls in the UK and abroad in an internet campaign of grooming and blackmail in which he promised them cash and gift cards, Preston Crown Court was told.
Latham, from Wigan in Greater Manchester, used an ‘advert’ on Snapchat with promises of up to £200 or gift cards for the victims to send him sexualised indecent images.
Prosecutor Alison Mather said that he threatened to post the images online if his victims refused to send him more of the photographs he demanded.
Latham was sentenced to 14 years in prison with an extended sentence of eight years for 49 offences of rape, making and distribution of indecent images, inciting children to engage in sexual behaviour, possession of extreme pornography and blackmail against 39 victims.
Ms Mather told the court that police had failed to identify a further 48 children whose images were found on Latham’s devices at his home but no charges have been brought because the police wanted to place Latham before the courts as soon as possible.
She told the court that many of the offences were committed when Latham was on bail for the rape of a 12-year-old girl whom he had met on a dating app and had made videos of them having sex.
Latham convinced the girl he was 15 and she was tricked into thinking they were boyfriend and girlfriend. But suspicions were raised by a children’s welfare service and police were alerted.
Stuart Latham (above) has been jailed for 14 years after targeting ‘young and vulnerable’ girls in the UK and abroad in an internet campaign of grooming and blackmail
Footage from Greater Manchester Police shows Latham being swooped in on by cops
Ms Mather said that police seized his phone after the arrest on suspicion of rape and found that he had been in contact with children in the UK and abroad.
She said: ‘He had used his phone to record his conversations. He spoke to multiple children at the same time and moved between conversations. He said he would offer £200 to send him photographs or videos of them nude.
‘The images were clearly of young children and he sent them photographs of a 14-year-old boy.’
The court heard that police later found a second device in which he had used a similar Snapchat ‘advert’ to lure further victims.
Judge Philip Parry told Latham: ‘You are a highly dangerous individual. You are a predatory sex offender with little or no empathy or remorse to young girls who come within your orbit and are in danger of being sexually exploited or abused by you.
‘You attitude toward sexual offending shows that there is significant risk to the public of significant harm. You deliberately targeted young girls and many of the offences were committed while on bail.’
He said that pre-sentence reports identified Latham as posing a high risk to young girls and showed ‘increasingly manipulative efforts to mislead his victims to facilitate sexual grooming’.
The judge said that Latham continued offending while on bail because ‘he knew he was in trouble and believed that he could not be in a worse situation’.
Latham was led out of a property into the back of a police car after being arrested
He added that the report said that Latham had ‘manipulated his victims with a degree of aggression and menace’.
The judge paid tributes to two of the victims, one of them a rape victim, who had come to court to give personal statements.
He told them: ‘You are very brave and the court is absolutely delighted that you could dig deep to stand by what you said. You have helped expose his vile and manipulative behaviour by your bravery. You have beaten him and you should be proud of yourselves.’
The court heard a series of victim impact statements.
The mother of one victim said: ‘This man’s behaviour in targeting girls when they are at a vulnerable age is disgusting.’
The mother of the 12-year-old who was raped said: ‘The impact of his actions has been devastating. I feel anger and rage that I allowed this to happen.’
Another mother said: ‘I am disgusted that someone could go to such lengths to trick and deceive so many young girls. He has ruined people’s lives and it makes me sick.’
Another added: ‘He is a sexual predator and it is awful to do this to children. How could he do this this to so many children?’
Ms Mather said that the offences took place between May 2022 and March 2024 when Latham was aged between 19 and 21.
Nicholas Clarke, defending, said that Latham had shown ‘an element of immaturity and naivety’.
He added: ‘He shows an immaturity in relation to emotional control, matters of restraint and an inability to appreciate the consequences of his actions.’
