Jailed 'catfish' paedophile has sentence increased
Northumbria PoliceA catfishing paedophile jailed for targeting more than 30 children online has had his sentence increased.
Daniel Lee, 29, solicited sexual photos and videos from girls as young as 12 on social media and pretended to be a teenage girl to get images from boys, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Lee, of Wallsend, North Tyneside, admitted 45 offences, including causing children to engage in sexual activity, and was jailed for four years and five months in October.
However, a spokesman for the Attorney General said this had been increased to six years and two months, with a four-year extended licence, after a Court of Appeal hearing.
The National Crime Agency found thousands of messages sent by Lee over 18 months after being tipped off by X and US authorities.
Prosecutor Emma Dowling said seven victims were spoken to by police in the UK but there were many more that could not be identified including children in Italy, Germany and Denmark.
She said Lee, of St Peter's Road, offered children payment in exchange for sexually graphic pictures and videos and he groomed some of his victims, whom he targeted on sites including X, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat between 2021 and 2022.
On some occasions he spent several weeks building an "emotional relationship" with his victims before asking them for sexually explicit pictures and videos, Ms Dowling said.
He posed as a teenage girl to contact young teenage boys, Ms Dowling said, adding he was a "catfish", a term used to describe someone masquerading as another person online.
Indecent images were found on his phone including 97 in the most serious category, which included one featuring a toddler, the court heard.
In mitigation, the court heard Lee had a learning disability and had committed no more offences since his arrest in 2022.
He was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to limit his internet use indefinitely and must sign the sex offenders' register for life.
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