A “cruel” and “twisted” paedophile who blackmailed girls as young as 12 into becoming his “sex slaves” has been jailed for 26 years.

Jordan Croft admitted 65 offences involving 26 victims who were forced to send photos and videos of themselves performing acts of a sexual or degrading nature.

The 26-year-old from Worthing, West Sussex, posed as a teenage boy online as he sought out young girls with the aim of “dominating and controlling” them, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

One victim said she hoped Croft would “burn in hell” as he was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on Friday.

Investigators found the paedophile was in contact with more than 5,000 people on one platform alone.

After getting victims to send him a nude photo, Croft used this against them to make demands for increasingly depraved and graphic content.

He set a list of rules they had to adhere to and moved their conversations to the encrypted platform Telegram.

Many of the girls and young women he abused, aged between 12 and 22, were made to film themselves saying they were entering into Croft’s “contract of sexual slavery”.

He forced victims to sexually abuse themselves and other children on demand, as well as film themselves urinating and defecating, the NCA said.

Victims had to ask for permission to go to the toilet and say when they were going to be busy so Croft knew they were not ignoring him.

If the girls did not comply, Croft would set punishments and threaten to expose them to their family or social media followers.

‘Burn in hell’

In a series of powerful victim impact statements, Croft was branded a “cruel, twisted, pathetic paedophile” – with one victim saying she hopes he will “burn in hell”.

“Your atrocious actions have ruined the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of young girls who will never forget or allow themselves to forget what you did to them,” one victim said.

Another wrote: “I was terrified of you and I thought there was no way out. You trapped me. You scared me. I couldn’t believe that someone could be that violent and nasty.”

One victim’s statement read: “I want you to suffer as much as I suffered emotionally and physically. You make me sick. You make me so angry.

“You’ve made me suffer long enough and now it’s your turn. I hope you burn in hell.”

Another wrote: “From now on people will know you as nothing more than a cruel, twisted, pathetic paedophile.”

“I want you to know that I hate what you did to me and I hope you rot in hell,” a victim wrote.

Catfish

Croft was arrested in September 2019 after he was identified as being behind various usernames linked to online abuse that was reported to several police forces, with his offending dating back to April 2018.

Croft’s devices were seized, including a USB stick and two mobile phones on which he had saved the abuse material and tagged it with the victims’ names, ages and a list of their social media followers.

Investigators linked him to 20 online profiles across four different messaging platforms.

Chat logs showed that Croft initially pretended to be a teenage boy to befriend his victims.

Once content the girls were going to follow his rules, Croft revealed his true age and admitted to being a “catfish” and a “pedo into girls 12-14”.

He told his victims he had a degree in cybersecurity and had masked his online identity so he could not be traced by law enforcement.

Victims’ bravery praised

Croft pleaded guilty to 65 charges at Lewes Crown Court in August, including causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; blackmail; making unwarranted demands for indecent images; intentionally causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child; and making more than 900 indecent images of children.

Martin Ludlow, senior investigating officer at the NCA, called Croft a “prolific offender who has caused heart-breaking suffering to many victims and their families”.

“The sexual depravity he consistently displayed during this abuse of both young female children and adults is horrific,” he said.

“Like many offenders Croft thrived on the power he was able to exert over the victims. He sought the feeling of control and obtained it by deceit and abuse.

“He showed no compassion for the victims, pushing them to breaking point and issuing threats, even when they begged him to stop.

“I commend these young women who have shown such bravery in speaking out against him.”

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