January 2012 Six years’ jail for Wirral internet pervert who blackmailed young American teenage girls A HEARTLESS Wirral pervert blackmailed young teenage girls in America after obtaining naked images of them via the internet and caused “havoc” in their lives, a court heard. A judge told 35-year-old Jonathan Murphy “blackmail is one of the most vicious crimes in the calendar of wicked offences. It is appalling behaviour, vicious and nasty.” Murphy coldly told the sister of one 13-year-old victim in Massachusetts, who had begged him to stop after he bombarded them with Facebook messages: “If you’re trying to prey on my conscience, I haven’t got one.” He blackmailed his vulnerable victims saying that if he did not receive more images or do as he wanted he would come over to the USA and kidnap them. When the 13-year-old and her sister, then 15, did not acquiesce to his incessant demands he carried out his threat to forward the video to her friends, mother and school of her showing her naked breasts. Some of them he sent out in a fake Facebook account in her name. He also sent an indecent video of another victim to her friend and a web-sharing site. Jailing him for six years Judge David Fletcher said that Murphy, whose behaviour he described as “abominable”, had made and carried out threats. “I don’t know if you really appreciate the way in which you wrecked the lives of these young girls,” he said. “During the months of August, September and October 2010 you caused havoc in the lives of a number of people thousands of miles away through your use of the internet to target girls, obtaining indecent images and then proceeding to blackmail them.” Murphy had been using a Facebook account under the name of John Reeves but following a joint operation between the FBI in Boston, Merseyside Police Abusive Images unit, CEOP and Facebook he was identified. When police raided his home in Highfield Road, Rock Ferry, on November 3, 2010, they examined his computers and, as well as evidence of his blackmailing activity, they found more than 2,000 indecent photographs and videos of children. He had been distributing some of the disgusting images and chatting to like-minded perverts on line, said Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting. Former salesman Murphy pleaded guilty to three offences of blackmail and a further 26 of downloading and distributing indecent images. He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and the judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning him from unsupervised contact with girls under 16 and limiting his internet access. Mr Hopkins told Liverpool Crown Court that the 13-year-old had innocently chatted on a website. Murphy, who pretended to be a good-looking teenager, targeted her to entice her to reveal parts of herself on the webcam and unfortunately she revealed her breasts to him, an image which he captured. He requested her and her sister as Facebook friends and then “utterly despicably” sent hundreds of abusive and threatening messages to them for three months demanding more such images. The distraught girls refused and, pretending to be her, Murphy sent the video footage to her friends and posted a link to her school’s website naming her and saying “I am a whore , I strip for money”. He had uploaded the video to file-sharing website and it is now in the public domain for ever, said Mr Hopkins. Fragments of conversation retrieved from his computer revealed similar behaviour with two other young girls, including sending an indecent video of one of them to her friend with a link to a sharing website. In conversations with other perverts on line he referred to his victims as “cam whores” and it was apparent they spent their time searching on websites to capture indecent images of girls, he said. Victim impact statements revealed how the 13-year-old had had to have counselling and her personality had changed and her confidence shattered. She lost a lot of friends and had to change schools and her frightened sister and mother had also been devastated by Murphy’s activities. Paul Wood, defending, said that Murphy, who has a previous conviction for nuisance phone calls, accepts his behaviour had had grave consequences. Murphy, who has a drink problem, had stopped of his own volition. He had worked for 17 years before losing his job and was socially isolated. After the hearing Dc Dave Gregson, from Merseyside Police Abusive Images Unit said, “This investigation shows that Merseyside Police in conjunction with partner agencies such as Facebook, FBI and Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre will continue to investigate the online activities of individuals engaged in pedophiliac activity on the internet and the clear message is that is to be sent out here is that however someone tries to hid their identity they can be found and will be brought to the attention of the courts.”