A headteacher asked more than 100 boys for naked pictures on Facebook. Nick Clayton from Holyake sent creepy messages to boys as young as 10 while working as the head of a British international school in Iraq.
Holyake's campaign of grooming came to an end when police arrested him at an airport where he claimed he was hacked. Holyake was sentenced yesterday at Liverpool Crown Court, where it was revealed that the 38-year-old contacted the profiles of 131 boys - mostly based in South Asia - over a three month period in 2017.
As reported by the Liverpool ECHO, these chats involved a 12-year-old boy from Cambodia, a 13-year-old in Indonesia, a child aged 14 from the Philippines and a 16-year-old in Sri Lanka. The paedophile 'bribed them with gifts' before demanding sick photographs, telling one: "You have a camera on your phone, it's your turn now."
When the boy did not send him images, Clayton said: "I'm impatient now, you are just taking advantage. You need me, but you keep your body private."
Clayton, of Charles Road, asked his victim to erase the chat logs afterwards, having also offered a 16-year-old 'travel and sponsorship'. He then contacted Facebook claiming that he had noticed months of 'unusual activity' on his account - which he later deleted - and claimed he had been hacked.
The disgraced teacher, who has no previous convictions, was arrested at an airport in October 2017 as he flew back into the UK. Martine Snowdon, defending, described how her client was now living with his mum at their Wirral home and had acted as her carer.
She added: "Mr Clayton was in denial over what he had done and the impact of it when he was arrested. He can see, when he looks back five years ago, he was living in a very different environment where the protective factors which existed when living at home in a close knit family did not exist.
"He rose quickly, which gave him feelings of empowerment which went to his head and enabled him to behave in a completely inappropriate, destructive way. He has also lived for five years with the fear that this day may come."
Clayton, who was supported by his parents and sister in the public gallery, admitted three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and one of attempting to incite the sexual exploitation of a child. Sentencing him to 20 months in prison, Recorder Ian Harris said: "The communications were predatory, persistent and repulsive.
"You sought to exploit young males and corrupt them. All of this was for your own sexual gratification."
Clayton was handed a 15-year sexual harm prevention order and told to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years. He must also pay a victim surcharge.
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