A teenager who pretended to be a girl has been jailed for six years after tricking boys into performing sex acts for him.

 
Harry Johnson would pretend to be girls called Melissa, Amie or Becca as he groomed seven children aged between 11 and 16.

In one incident he got two brothers to perform oral sex on one another and in another case he made a boy try to have sex with his family dog.

In a victim impact statement the mother of the brothers said: ‘I felt physically sick. My boys’ innocence has been taken away. The effect this has had on our family I would not wish on anyone.

‘We are having counselling and guidance. It is a disgusting, devastating and life-changing situation.’
He sent his victims pictures of girls and exchanged sexual messages before recording them masturbating for him.

Police found he had also downloaded child sex abuse pictures onto his computer.
He pleaded guilty to 22 charges at St Albans Crown Court relating to crimes between January and July 2016.

Prosecutor Simon Wilshire said: ‘He posed as a young girl and incited them (the boys) to engage in sexual activity over the Internet. At times he recorded the activity that was going on in front of him.

‘Not only had he duped and misled young boys to commit sex acts at end of web cam, he recorded videos and stored them.’

He was caught when one of his victim’s parents checked what their son was doing on his iPad and they discovered there were explicit messages from someone called MelissaB178.

Mr Wilshire said: ‘They challenged him and he admitted he had been sending explicit texts and had used the webcam. He was embarrassed, ashamed and upset.