WIREDGOV

A County Tyrone man has been sentenced recently after pleading guilty to 41 offences including grooming children under 13 online to perform sexual acts on camera.

Michael Dynes, aged 39, from the Dungannon area was arrested in June 2015 as part of Operation Jarra, the joint PSNI/NCA investigation into accessing indecent images of children online. NCA officers conducted a search of his home and seized multiple electronic devices.

Forensic examination of the devices found hundreds of video capture recordings of Dynes engaging in web chats with children, where he encourages them to engage in sexual activity. There were also voyeuristic and covert ‘upskirting’ videos taken by Dynes, along with extreme pornographic images and over 1000 indecent images of children ranging from levels 1-5.

Digital analysis showed that between 2009-2015, Dynes had been using fake user profiles under the names of ‘John O’Neill’ and ‘Jenny Bell’ to incite sexual activity, groom and attempt to meet young victims. He also used these profiles to pose as an artist and post online adverts for female life models. Investigators found a large collection of recorded video auditions with women removing their clothes and posing erotically on request.

As a result of the digital evidence, Dynes was further arrested in October 2015 and was held on remand for 14 months until being released on bail.

On 17 January 2017 at Dungannon Crown Court, Dynes pleaded guilty to 41 separate charges, including making and possessing indecent images of children, voyeurism, fraud, possession of extreme pornography, and causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Dynes was sentenced recently at the same court to a three years and one month custodial sentence less time served on remand with two years on probation, during which he must undertake a treatment programme for sexual offenders. He was also given a 10 year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and is banned from working with children and vulnerable adults.

NCA Branch Commander Rob Burgess said: “I believe Michael Dynes to be a predatory and manipulative abuser of both children and adults. He went to great lengths to exploit his victims for his own sexual gratification.

“Working with the PSNI, we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to protect children from sexual abuse and bring those who seek to harm them to justice.

“Work is on-going to identify and safeguard victims but I would like to encourage anyone who thinks they may have been subject to abuse by Dynes to report it through the NCA CEOP safety centre at www.ceop.police.uk. Alternatively, local police forces can be contacted via 101, or 999 in an emergency.”

Serious Crime Unit Senior Prosecutor, Hazel Edmondson, who handled the case said: “This was a serious case of manipulation and exploitation of male and female teenagers.  Any young person online could have been vulnerable to this defendant’s offending, which included the defendant pretending to be a young female and inciting the online victims to share intimate acts in their own home, which unknown to the victims, he then recorded for his own sexual gratification.  PPS worked closely with the NCA throughout this investigation and prosecution and will continue to work with them to raise public awareness of this form of exploitation.”