Rhys Lynn was jailed for over five years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police
A pervert used fake social media profiles to threaten young girls into sending him naked photographs of themselves, Lincoln Crown Court was told on Thursday.
Rhys Lynn told his victims that he would distribute images of them that he had already obtained. He threatened to rape a 15-year-old if she did not comply.
The five girls involved, one of whom was only 12, were left badly affected by their contact with him over the internet with a number of them having since had to undergo counselling.
One later told police that her chances of success in her A-Levels had been completely wrecked by him.
Lynn, 24, of Hawthorn Avenue, Cherry Willingham, admitted five charges of causing or inciting exploitation of a child; two charges of causing a child to watch a sexual act; a further charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and three charges of making a total of 1,218 indecent images of children.
He was jailed for five years and four months and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life. He was also given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
Judge Steven Coupland, passing sentence, told him: “You did this because you have a sexual interest in young girls. These offences were deliberate and sophisticated and it was a course of conduct.
“A particularly unpleasant feature of this case is that after they had been persuaded to send you pictures you threatened you would send those pictures to other people if they did not send you more.”
Caroline Bradley, prosecuting, said that Lynn set up accounts on sites such as Instagram and Snapchat using fictitious names claiming he was a teenage boy.
Four of the girls sent him naked photographs of themselves and Lynn also sent sexual images of himself to them.
Miss Bradley said that one girl, aged 13, sent naked pictures and was blackmailed into sending more.
She said that Lynn claimed to be 14 in messages he sent to his 12-year-old victim.
“He sent her a video of his penis and messages that if she did not send him photographs he would tell everybody she had sent him images of herself naked.”
The girl’s social media account was taken over first by her elder sister and then by her mother but Lynn continued to send her indecent material.
Miss Bradley added that a 15-year-old girl was targeted by Lynn after accepting a friend request from him.
“She was then asked for nudes. The defendant said that if she didn’t send them she would be raped. She sent him pictures of her breasts and he threatened to post the pictures on the internet.”
A 16-year-old was also blackmailed into sending photographs and another young girl was told that video footage of one of her friends would be distributed unless she agreed to his requests.
Lynn was arrested in August last year after police raided his home. He went on to admit during interviews with officers that he had set up social media accounts using fictitious names and then committed the offences.
Sunil Khanna, in mitigation, said: “He is a man with no previous convictions who suddenly became involved in this quite appalling behaviour.”
He said that Lynn gained an engineering qualification at college and then obtained an apprenticeship only to be laid off.
Lynn, he said, struggled to cope after going self-employed and started drinking. He then began to set up social media accounts using fake profiles and contacted girls.
“It was like a snowball. Initially he started interacting with these young girls and things developed further and further. He accepts he has problems.”
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Hays Travel will close three of its eight branches in Lincolnshire, after the COVID lockdown and travel bans have delayed progress for the travel firm.
The company, based in the North East of England, will close 89 of its 535 shops after a review into performance in recent times.
Three Lincolnshire stores will be affected by these closures: Grantham, Spalding and Boston not reopening once their leases expire.
However, branches in Lincoln, Sleaford, Skegness, Grimsby and Stamford will be some of the 83% of Hays stores that will stay open.
A total of 388 staff will be affected by the closures across the country, around 5% of the 7,700 people employed by Hays Travel.
It comes after Hays Travel bought fellow travel firm Thomas Cook in 2019 in an attempt to expand business.
A third national lockdown and subsequent travel ban forced the company to act and make the difficult decision to close branches.
The closures are part of a two-year business plan set out by the company in order to “be ready for the bounce back” from the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokesperson for Hays Travel said the company is doing all it can to protect any staff affected by the closures.
“We are now discussing a number of options for alternative work for all staff at those stores.
There are other Hays Travel stores near and all customers continue to be looked after by staff working from home via phone, zoom, FaceTime and other means during lockdown.”
Councillors said losing services from Gainsborough’s John Coupland Hospital would be “disastrous” for the district and the town, and one even warned that hospital bosses “can’t be trusted”.
A motion before West Lindsey district councillors on Monday raised fears that consultant-led outpatient services would be withdrawn and called on the authority to write to United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust expressing “extreme concern” over the moves.
ULHT is considering how it delivers “some outpatient services at some peripheral sites,” but said it has not yet decided on the details.
Responding to the motion, council leader Councillor Owen Bierley said he was concerned about the news.
“That is the main NHS hub within our district,” he said.
“We cannot dispute the unprecedent impacts this pandemic is having on our NHS services, however we must seek to protect local services for local people wherever we can, particularly in rural communities like ours where there are often already barriers to accessing services.”
Councillor Trevor Young said the district was the “poor relation” when it comes to health and called for leaders to be “strong and forceful”.
“We need to get them around the table, and we need to get some solutions around the future use of John Coupland.
“It’s a fantastic resource, we could improve health and well being across the district.
“We don’t want to let this facility slip. If it does, it’ll be disastrous for the district.”
Councillor Roger Patterson pointed to campaigns to save other hospitals, including Grantham and District, saying “they promise one thing and they fail to deliver all the time”.
“They can’t be trusted, so whatever we get from them we need to, as a council, keep our finger on the pulse and hold them to it,” he said.
West Lindsey’s Full Council supported the motion.
Councillor Angela White, who sits on the health scrutiny committee at Lincolnshire County Council, warned of a difficult time for people in the future waiting for operations due to the impact of COVID-19 on services.
Councillor Michael Devine, meanwhile, warned that the trust was “clearly centralising health facilities” and said people would struggle to find ways of getting to Lincoln.
“The health provision in this town, probably the district as well, is gradually becoming worse.
“We have two doctor surgeries and we’re planning to build hundreds and thousands of houses — how are we going to manage?
“The whole health care in this district is just not good enough, and the people responsible for it, the CCG and the health trust, they need to get their act together and improve it,” he said.
Former WLDC Council leader Councillor Jeff Summers hinted at a groundhog day situation where “things just keep going round don’t they?” He remembered having similar discussions several years ago.
The motion was unanimously supported by the whole council.
A former shoe shop with over six decades of history in Lincoln will transform into a new takeaway if plans are approved by City of Lincoln Council.
Brian Rose on Boultham Park Road closed in March 2019 when the namesake owner retired after 60 years, having worked in the shop since he was just 14-years-old.
Meryem Erol of Skegness submitted a planning application to the city council last week to change the use of the vacant shop to hot food takeaway.
The takeaway would be situated next to Premier Stores and will be called Rixos.
It has not yet been publicly revealed what type of takeaway it will be, but it is understood Meryem Erol is one of the owners of Nemrud Pizza House in Skegness.
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