West Yorkshire Police have warned a number of secondary schools about the issue following a spike in online offences, that saw children as young as ten posting indecent images on SnapChat and Instagram. A message from the Child Safeguarding unit at Dewsbury Police Station, has been widely shared on social media by worried Kirklees parents after it was erroneously sent out by a school.
The message says there has been “a spike in the number of indecent image offences” within the borough and claims a “common suspect” is targeting young pupils at Mirfield Free Grammar, Colne Valley High School at Linthwaite, Spen Valley High School in Liversedge and Whitcliffe Mount School at Cleckheaton.
The email reads: “We have identified a pattern of offending with a common suspect. The suspect is requesting indecent images from girls aged 10-14 years old. He is quite threatening in the way he speaks to the girls and on a number of occasions has been successful in obtaining images.
“The suspect then sets up fake Snapchat and Instagram accounts in pupils’ names and, using the indecent images already obtained, pretends to be that person, further distributing the image and requesting the new victim sends an indecent image of themselves in return.”
Police are asking anyone who has “experienced anything similar” to come forward.They can be contacted by ringing 101 or using the online chat facility.
