July 2015 Jailed: Bridgnorth man posted indecent photos of girl on Facebook A Bridgnorth man who posted indecent pictures of a girl to friends on Facebook was told that he had committed “a cruel and wicked crime”. Ryan Hurd was “motivated by humiliation and revenge” when he posted pictures of the teenage victim in a private group on Facebook, accessible to four of his friends, Judge Jonathan Gosling said. Hurd, 20, of Queens Road, had previously pleaded guilty to inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity and distributing indecent images of a child. Judge Jonathan Gosling said Hurd’s offences had been “characterised by planning and grooming” with “threats akin to blackmail”. “It was a wicked, cruel and humiliating thing to do to her,” he said and added that the effect on the victim had been “devastating”. Judge Gosling accepted that Hurd was himself an extremely vulnerable man who would find prison difficult.  He said he would cut the time the defendant would spend in prison because of his vulnerability and his early guilty plea. He also took account of psychiatric assessments and a letter written by the defendant’s mother. Hurd was sentenced to eight months on each offence to run concurrently at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday. He was also made subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Mr Phillip Bradley, prosecuting, said the defendant, who had no previous convictions, had immediately admitted the offences. The court was told that Hurd had been messaging the victim for a couple of weeks when he received the pictures. While Mrs Deborah White, for Hurd, had spoken of the defendant’s learning difficulties and low IQ, the judge said that he was “not stupid” and had teased the victim for a long time. Mrs White told the court that the offence of distributing the images was at the lesser end of the scale as it had been done in such a way that only four people had access to them.