The victim, who was 13 when she was first contacted by Lee Shocklidge, read out a statement as the 40-year-old was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

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Shocklidge engaged in "highly sexually explicit" messages with at least a dozen young girls in Norwich, encouraging them to film themselves carrying out sex acts and send him the images and videos.

The girl told him what he had done was "absolute evil" and "absolutely disgusting" and that it made her "sick to my stomach".

She said he had "stolen" her innocence but that she had since regained her "spark".

Norwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest)

Norwich Crown Court was told the 40-year-old contacted the children, all aged between nine and 15, via WhatsApp or online pretending he was only a bit older than them.

Shocklidge contacted some of his victims on WhatsApp (Image: AP Photo/Patrick Sison)

The hearing was told the victims were from the city but that only five of the 12 have so far been traced by police.

Lee Shocklidge (Image: Facebook)

Shocklidge was living in Norwich at the time of the offences, between June 2021 and July 2023.

He then moved to Northamptonshire where he committed further offences between July and October 2024.

Lee Shocklidge (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

Philip Farr, prosecuting, said Shocklidge had exchanged thousands of messages with his victims.

He was caught after one of them spoke to a safeguarding officer at her school. Her parents were contacted and after explicit messages were found on her phone, police were informed.

An adult decoy was then used to contact Shocklidge in order to obtain more details about his whereabouts.

Lee Shocklidge (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

He was arrested in 2023 but while he was still under investigation for the Norwich offences he committed further offences which were uncovered by a paedophile hunter group in Northamptonshire.

Shocklidge, now from Kettering, appeared in court on Thursday after he admitted 25 offences between 2021 and 2024.

Among the offences were three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and five counts of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act.

Lee Shocklidge (Image: Facebook)

He also admitted three offences of causing a child to watch a sexual act, three counts of making indecent images of children and three offences of distributing indecent images of children.

Those offences involved a total of 1,650 images, including 58 category A, the most serious.

Judge Anthony Bate said Shocklidge had played out his "darker side" online from the "privacy of his room" and that a "large number of girls" had been damaged.

Judge Anthony Bate (Image: Newsquest)

Gavin Cowe, mitigating for Shocklidge, who had no previous convictions, said there was little he could say about the offences other than that they were online rather than "face to face".

Mr Cowe said Shocklidge had "no intention of meeting" any of the victims.

The barrister said the defendant had moved to Norwich from Northampton but had no lasting friendships and found himself isolated.

He said he acted in this "abhorrent way" to boost his self-esteem and "put his needs above those of others".

Shocklidge was made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and was also put on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

© Eastern Daily Press