Stuart Latham admitted 49 offences in one of UK’s biggest online child sexual abuse cases
An “abhorrent” Snapchat predator has been jailed for 14 years for raping a 12-year-old girl and exploiting dozens of others in one of the UK’s biggest online child sexual abuse investigations.
Stuart Latham, 22, is believed to have solicited explicit images from hundreds of girls, most aged between 11 and 13, on social media over the space of a year.
Latham was under investigation on suspicion of raping a 12-year-old girl when he obtained many of the 4,000 indecent images found on his devices. More than 1,000 images were category A – the most serious kind – which includes “sadistic” sexual acts or activity with animals.
DS Simon France, of Greater Manchester police (GMP), said Latham was “one of the most dangerous offenders” he had encountered in 14 years investigating sexual offences. He said “potentially hundreds” of young girls had been exploited by the “abhorrent” Latham.
