Yohann Ramchelawon, 30, was jailed for 15 years after being found guilty of 14 sexual offences, including sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl. Photo / West Midlands Police
Yohann Ramchelawon, 30, was jailed for 15 years after being found guilty of 14 sexual offences, including sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl. Photo / West Midlands Police
A sexual predator who posed as a Justin Bieber lookalike to sexually assault a 6-year-old girl and coax underage teenagers into sending him webcam images has been jailed for 15 years.
Yohann Ramchelawon set up fake accounts on social media websites Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype with pictures he stole from the internet to contact girls aged 12 and 17 from New Zealand and around the world.
The 30-year-old, who lives in England and is originally from Mauritius, asked girls to send nude pictures while using a profile picture of a boy aged about 16 who police described as resembling "a young Justin Bieber".
Once he enticed the youngsters to send indecent images of themselves to him, he then forced them to perform sex acts on camera by threatening to send their inappropriate images to family and friends if they did not meet his demands.
Ramchelawon tried to deny his crimes originally in court but changed his plea. He was jailed for 14 sexual offences, including sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl, the MailOnline reported.
Judge John Wait said: "I'm satisfied from your conduct that you have a perverted sexual attraction to very young girls.
"The consequence of your conduct has been awful and you present a significant risk of serious harm of further offending unless restrained. You are a dangerous offender and need to be sentenced as such."
Yohann Ramchelawon, 30, was jailed for 15 years after being found guilty of 14 sexual offences, including sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl. Photo / West Midlands Police
Ramchelawon, who was on bail for similar offences at the time, was finally caught after West Midlands Police tracked the phone he used to message a 12-year-old girl to a house in Walsall, West Midlands, where he was living at the time.
The young girl, from Manchester, felt "disgusted" with herself after finding out Ramchelawon was not who he claimed to be. He was caught at a property in Huddersfield in March this year.
Police then found hundreds of indecent images of young girls on a number of his devices. Victims came from Coventry, Walsall, Liverpool, St Ives, East Ham and Lanark in Scotland, the court heard.
Further examination revealed he had also contacted girls living as far away as New Zealand, Brazil, Russia and United Arab Emirates.
Investigating officer, Detective Constable Kerry Haywood from West Midlands Police Public Protection Unit, said: 'He used various aliases including 'Ryan Smith' and 'Santiago' and claimed to be a teenager who was sending messages during school or college lessons.
"He sent poems, would call them 'baby' and tell them he loved them after chatting online for little more than a day."
She added: "The enquiry started when a girl from Manchester reported to police that a boy named Ryan was asking for intimate images. The investigation soon snowballed and we identified many more victims and online conversations with girls in different countries.
"I'd like to thank that 12-year-old girl for breaking her silence and putting her faith in the police. It's helped us put a calculating sex predator behind bars and undoubtedly protected other girls for falling into his trap."
Ramchelawon set up fake accounts on social media websites Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype with pictures he stole from the internet. Photo / Getty
Haywood also appealed to parents to closely monitor their children's online activity.
She added: "You need to be absolutely certain who you're talking to online. Your son or daughter may believe they're chatting with another teenager but, in reality, it could be someone much older with sinister intentions.
"Parents shouldn't feel awkward asking their children what they're up to online and who they're conversing with on social media. Perhaps have an agreement that they only use the internet in an overt manner, in the living room, rather than squirreled away in their bedrooms.
"And ask whether your child really needs a webcam in their bedroom. If a child is persuaded to expose themselves in front of a camera then they've lost control of that image or video and it could be floating around online forever."
Once released, Ramchelawon will serve the rest of his sentence on licence. Once his normal licence period has ended, he will be subject to a further five years on licence. He will be subject to recall to prison if he breaches any of the terms of his release.
He was also ordered to sign the sexual offenders register for life.
