August 2020 Hastings man sentenced for sexual offences against three girls A Hastings man is starting a prison sentence for a series of online sexual offences against three girls who he targeted via social media. Jamie Welch, 31, a kitchen worker, of St Georges Road, Hastings, was sentenced to a total of three-and-a-half years imprisonment at Hove Crown Court on Monday 17 August, having pleaded guilty on 10 July to counts of causing each of the three girls to engage, separately, in online sexual activity, and to a further count of disclosing a private sexual photograph without the consent of one of them. The girls, two from East Sussex and one from Somerset, were aged between 12 and 15 at the time of the offences. He had pleaded not guilty to a further charge of causing one of the girls from East Sussex to engage in sexual activity and the trial judge directed that this should lay on the court files, not proceeded with. Welch will be a registered sex offender until further court decision and was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, again to last until further court notice, severely restricting his access to children and computer devices. He was also given court Restraining Orders prohibiting him from ever contacting any of the victims again. Welch, who was 27 when his offences began, showed a predatory and depraved nature when he deliberately targeted young girls through Facebook, pretending to be a good looking 15-year-old boy, using pictures from another boy’s social media account to start online relationships with them. He incited the girls into sending him indecent images of themselves for his own sexual gratification, before threatening to post their pictures on social media for their families and friends to see unless they continued to meet his sick demands. Welch used multiple fake social media accounts throughout his offending and preyed on vulnerable children who were too scared to report him. One victim was so scared after he threatened her she felt unable to ever leave her home alone. Another victim attempted suicide.