Mum 'relieved' after predator who asked for explicit pictures on Snapchat jailed

A mum who started to become worried about her 11-year-old daughter when she started to behave differently was met with something no parent ever wants to see when she checked her phone.

The woman - who cannot be named for legal reasons - discovered her beloved child was being targeted on by an online sexual predator. The predator was later revealed to be Tom Spears, who is now 24, and had been posing as a 16-year-old while messaging the youngster through the popular app.

Now, the shocked mother has spoken of her relief at Spears, from North Broomhill near Amble in Northumberland, being after sending inappropriate messages to the teen. and asking for indecent images of the schoolgirl. The victim's mother reported the predator's actions to police after finding more accounts he was linked to.

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After a four-year-wait for justice, Spears was put behinds bars earlier this week for three years, much to the relief of the victim and her family. The woman said: "He had told her he was based in America. I got in contact with the police and they came out and said because it's Snapchat it's encrypted so they couldn't prosecute.

"I could tell them every other social media account and she said because I had proved how I had done it they could take it further which made me feel better. We went to the police station and my daughter had a video interview. It was only a couple of days after the police had come to speak to us. A couple of weeks later they arrested him."

Spears, who was arrested in 2020 pleaded guilty to charges of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and engaging in communication with a child. Speaking on the day he was jailed, the victim's mum said the whole ordeal had been "just so surreal".

She added: "The police and barrister had said cases like these usually get suspended sentences so to be prepared he could walk away from court. But the judge was really, really good."

The woman said her daughter - who is now 15 - has struggled with her mental health and has been through anxiety and depression since Spears targeted he, adding: "It was just four years of us battling through. It's just not there anymore. It doesn't feel like I won because it's been that long and doesn't change the outcome but it needed to be done for her so I could get her the help she needed."