A 17-year-old boy who forced 117 girls to self-harm, perform s£x acts and carve his alias on their bodies has been jailed.
Justin Swaddle, now 20, reportedly led a campaign of violence in a Com group, an online community that shares extreme graphic material and manipulates victims to commit violent and s£xual child abuse.
Swaddle’s devices were found to contain alarming images of victims self-harming and carving his aliases into their skin, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The man from Meanwood, Leeds, was just 17 when he groomed young girls on Snapchat, Discord and Telegram under the usernames ‘Epstein’, ‘Rugen’ and ‘Moscow’.
Danielle Pownall, Operations Manager at the NCA, said: ‘Justin Swaddle targeted young and vulnerable victims all over the world to abuse and scare them into carrying out shocking self-harm and s£xual activity, purely to gain popularity with his peers online.’
Swaddle was jailed for two years after a police investigation revealed he had communicated with 117 female victims aged 13 to 17. Eight of his victims lived in the UK.
Ms Pownall continued: ‘He gained the trust of his victims, before collecting private information about them so he could threaten to share their intimate images or report them to their school or parents to incite further content.’
One of Swaddle’s victims said the two met on the social media platform Discord in November 2022 before they moved to Snapchat.
The conversation quickly became s£xual and escalated to discussions about self-harm.
Swaddle requested that the victim send nude images of herself to him and carve his username on her body, according to the NCA.
He also obtained her name, home address and school details and shared recordings of calls where s£xual activity had taken place with a chat group.
Swaddle then threatened to use the girl’s personal details if she did not send more explicit videos and images to him.
Other chat logs from the messenger app Telegram showed he had attempted to make a child s£xually abuse another child and record it for him. He also threatened to share indecent images he had already obtained if his depraved request was not completed.
His devices contained indecent images of children in category C and category A, the most severe level.
Detectives estimated the images on Swaddle’s devices showed children aged between three and 17.
Some images indicated Swaddle had directed or encouraged the children to commit se£ual or harmful acts.
He was first arrested by West Yorkshire Police in October 2023 for offences including the possession, making and distribution of indecent images.
His devices were seized, and his online presence probed.
The NCA began its investigation in January 2024 and uncovered hundreds of conversations involving young women, all of which were sexual.
Investigators worked with law enforcement partners in the USA, Canada, Australia, Norway and New Zealand to speak to and safeguard victims.
Ms Pownall said: ‘While the number of people involved in Com groups are relatively small, the impact it has on victims is high and long-lasting, as Swaddle’s offending shows.
‘We are extremely grateful for the assistance of West Yorkshire Police, our international partners and specialist prosecutors at the CPS in bringing a dangerous offender to justice.’
Reports relating to the so-called ‘Com networks’ increased six times in the UK between 2022 and 2024, involving thousands of users and victims.
Ms Pownall added: ‘The NCA is coordinating the response to Com groups in the UK, working with a range of law enforcement, health and safeguarding partners to better understand pathways into offending and identify opportunities for prevention and intervention.’
According to the NCA, Swaddle admitted two counts of inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity without penetration; inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity with penetration; and blackmail.
He also pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child in categories A, B and C, as well as possessing an extreme porn0graphic image and possessing a prohibited image of a child.