Youth worker groomed boys in 'fantasy online world'
Cameron Osman worked at an East Sussex activity centre
A former holiday camp manager from Southampton has pleaded guilty to grooming more than 70 boys online by posing as a 16-year-old girl.
Cameron Osman's victims, who lived across the UK including Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth, were as young as 12.
Osman used the online alias ‘Lizzielemon’ to identify his victims on Instagram, MyLol and Love Crush, before moving them on to Google Hangouts, Discord and Skype.
Police said he engaged them in sexualised chat revolving around a "fantasy online world", but never identified himself, instead telling victims his camera was broken.
The offending took place between 2020 and 2021.
Osman was arrested in September 2021 after resigning from his job at PGL's Windmill Hill activity centre near Herstmonceux, days earlier.
Officers found no evidence of Osman grooming children at the activity centre.
His laptop and mobile phone were seized, and Osman was found to have contacted 76 boys in the UK aged between 12 and 16.
Investigators in the US also uncovered chat logs showing sexualised communication by Osman with underage boys in 27 countries.
He also searched online for underage boys in Columbia, where he was planning to visit.
Osman appeared at St Albans Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to 36 separate charges, including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
NCA operations manager Danielle Pownall said: "Cameron Osman callously preyed on vulnerable teenage boys, masquerading as a teenage girl for his own sexual gratification.
"I have no doubt, if we had not stopped Osman he would have gone on to commit more severe offending."
Osman, of Consiton Road, Redbridge, Southampton, is due to be sentenced at the same court on 30 June.