BBC News NI south-east reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A 21-year-old County Armagh man has been sentenced to five years and two months for a litany of online sexual offences against teenage girls.<\/p>\n On Friday, Max Hollingsbee, of Orient Circle in Lurgan, was sentenced for his crimes against 14 girls and young women.<\/p>\n His crimes fall into the broader field of online catfishing \u2013 where someone uses a false identity to gain the trust of someone before exploiting them, also often referred to as “sextortion”.<\/p>\n Hollingsbee had previously pleaded guilty to 42 charges across two indictments, which prosecutors believe represents an exhaustive all of his offending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The offences included causing children under 16 to engage in sexual activity, blackmail, possessing indecent photographs, attempted intimidation, unauthorised access to computer material, sexual communications with a child and the distribution of indecent images of a child.<\/p>\n Half of his sentence will be served in prison and half on licence. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n At Craigavon Crown Court, Judge Donna McColgan said Hollingsbee’s offending had taken place between 2021 and 2023 when he was 17-19.<\/p>\n He used apps including Whizz, Snapchat and Instagram to befriend and exploit victims, blackmailing them into providing him with explicit images.<\/p>\n The court heard that Hollingsbee had an IQ in the top 4% of the population with a particular expertise in technology which he used for nefarious purposes.<\/p>\n He hacked some of the girls’ accounts to obtain further images. <\/p>\n The court heard police had been unable to work out how he had managed to do this in some of the cases.<\/p>\n The court heard Hollingsbee had low self esteem and had been bullied from a young age but had exhibited an addiction to power, control and sexual satisfaction.<\/p>\n The judge said Hollingsbee had left one of his victims petrified, crying in her bed. <\/p>\n Others had declined to speak about what had happened to them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Public Prosecution Service assistant director Catherine Kierans, Hollingsbee was 17 when he began abusing girls online.<\/p>\n “He pretended to be a younger male and on occasions a female to gain the trust of other younger people,” she said. <\/p>\n “He then proceeded to threaten and extort these children to provide him with naked images of themselves.”<\/p>\n Ms Kierans said 14 young women across the UK were now dealing with the fallout of the case which, like others of its kind, began on social media.<\/p>\n “He was using the platforms that are out there where young people gather online,” she said.<\/p>\n “What he also did was try to sell the images and then blackmail the people who were trying to buy the images.<\/p>\n “So it was quite a sophisticated series of offences.”<\/p>\n Hollingsbee’s abuse was brought to a halt after some of his victims came forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"PSNI](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/5c1e\/live\/e86ba4f0-2cca-11f0-b26b-ab62c890638b.png.webp\")
PSNI<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘Sophisticated series of offences’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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