Predator who groomed schoolgirls online jailed for 15 years.

One of Yohann Ramchelawon's victims was from Lanarkshire.

Yohann
Published 19th Sep 2017
Last updated 19th Sep 2017

A Halifax man who posed as a young Justin Bieber lookalike online to lure schoolgirls into sending him indecent webcam images has been jailed for 15 years.

Yohann Ramchelawon, 30, used a photo of a teenage boy he grabbed from the internet to create bogus social media profiles before grooming youngsters, West Midlands Police said.

Ramchelawon, who was arrested at an address in Victoria Lane, Huddersfield, on March 6, utilised Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook to target girls aged between 12 and 17.

Some of his victims were also coerced into performing sex acts in front of webcams after Mauritius-born Ramchelawon threatened to share the images they had provided with friends and family.

In a statement issued after Ramchelawon was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court, West Midlands Police said officers picked up the inquiry after an IP address used to message a 12-year-old Manchester girl was traced to a house in Walsall.

Hundreds of indecent images were found on his digital devices as officers uncovered victims from Coventry and Walsall in the West Midlands, plus Lanark in Scotland, Liverpool, St Ives, Shoreham-by-sea and East Ham in Londo