A paedophile from Essex who posed as a teenage girl on social media to blackmail young boys has been sentenced to 21 years in prison. Jay Lang, 24, from Canvey Island, carried out a sophisticated three-year campaign of exploitation, targeting boys aged 11 to 16.
The Deceptive Online Grooming Operation
Lang created fake profiles on Snapchat and Instagram, pretending to be a 16-year-old girl named 'Chloe'. He used these accounts to initiate contact with boys, before steering conversations towards sexually explicit content.
He would then encourage the victims to send him indecent videos and photos of themselves. Unbeknownst to the boys, Lang was using a screen-recording app on his phone to capture the images, which he then saved to use for blackmail.
After receiving the material, Lang would reveal his true identity as a man. He then demanded either more explicit images or cash payments, threatening to publish the photos he already had if the victims did not comply.
Taunting Police and Lack of Remorse
When Lang was finally arrested and questioned at Basildon police station in November 2021, his behaviour was captured on camera. Footage analysed for a new Channel 4 documentary, Social Media Monsters, shows him goading detectives.
He can be heard urging officers to 'keep digging', claiming further investigation would not implicate him. When an officer suggested this indicated he believed someone else was responsible, Lang replied: 'Even if I did give you a name, I'm just going to be in here even longer.'
Analysing the footage, Detective Sergeant Ben Rushmere of Essex Police said Lang was attempting to groom the officers. 'They don't normally fight with police, they want to be your friend. They almost play the victims themselves,' he explained.
Clinical psychologist Dr Roberta Babb added that Lang's taunts demonstrated a 'lack of remorse' and were an attempt to 'maintain a sense of control and superiority', core aspects of his offending.
The Devastating Impact on Victims
The court heard harrowing details of the abuse, which occurred between 2019 and 2021. One victim, after being blackmailed, felt he had no choice but to agree to meet Lang in person. He was driven to a secluded location in a van and sexually abused.
In another case, Lang blackmailed a boy into filming himself performing a sex act with a male friend. He also demanded £2,000 from a separate victim, threatening to post the images on Facebook.
The scale of Lang's offending was vast. Police analysis of his phone identified 540 videos and 140,000 indecent images. Officers identified 220 potential victims, with 26 providing evidential accounts.
Lang ultimately pleaded guilty to 46 offences, including:
- Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity
- Blackmail
- Causing or inciting child sexual exploitation
- Arranging or facilitating a child sex offence
At sentencing, he was given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will remain on the sex offenders' register for life. He received a 21-year prison sentence with an extended licence period of six years.
The full story is featured in Social Media Monsters on Channel 4.
