September 22, 2023
Marc Brown leading Joe Bird were instructed to prosecute 24-year-old Jay Lang from Canvey Island in respect of 46 counts of child sex offending relating to some 26 victims.
This was a complex and sensitive investigation and prosecution.
The defendant’s offending took place over a period of about three years between 2019 and 2021. His modus operandi was to create numerous social media profiles of a young teenage girl using a pseudonym.
He would then target young boys aged between the eleven and sixteen to engage the boys in conversation and then explicit sexual acts. This would take place over Snapchat.
Having obtained sexual images or video of the boys, the defendant would then use the videos to blackmail the victims, either demanding money, or demanding they carry out of more explicit sexual acts. Including meeting him for the purposes of engaging with him in sexual activity
The offending came to light in November 2021 when one of the victims reported what had happened to him to the police. He told officers that he had exchanged videos with a Snapchat profile a young female and had subsequently been blackmailed.
The Child Sexual Exploitation Proactive Investigation Team identified some 540 videos and 140,000 images on Lang’s mobile phone device.
Amongst them there were numerous videos that had been captured with screen recording software which overrode snapchats inbuild security function which usually notifies all participants that a session has been screen recorded.
That application had been used to capture interaction between the defendant and the victims whilst communicating using the Snapchat or Instagram social media platforms.
Jay Lang was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment with an extended licence period of 6 years at Basildon Crown Court on Friday the 22nd September 2023.
Marc Brown and Joe Bird were instructed by Jeanette Smith at the Crown Prosecution Service Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit.
Marc Brown is an experienced Crime practitioner who prosecutes and defends as both a leading and led junior across Sexual Offences, Murder & Manslaughter, Serious Violence, and Business Crime & Fraud matters. Read more: [Marc Brown Profile]
Joe Bird maintains a busy, solid practice, both alone and as led junior, prosecuting and defending across the full range of criminal offences: [Joe Bird Profile]
