Hirwaun man jailed for catfishing girls and sharing images

A Hirwaun man who pretended to be a teenager to trick young girls into sending indecent images has been jailed for eight years.

Rowan Barnett-Davies, 24, posed as a 15-year-old boy online, using a photograph of a real teenager to gain the trust of his victims. He contacted around 120 young girls throughout the UK, including victims as young as 11, pressuring them into sending images and videos of themselves posing naked or performing sexual acts.

Newport Crown Court heard police received intelligence that Barnett-Davies was in possession of child sexual abuse material, including more than 2,000 indecent images, and had been in contact with teenage girls online.

Prosecutor Martha Smith-Higgins said Barnett-Davies would make initial contact with his victims on Snapchat and “cast his net” to see who responded to messages. He would quickly change conversations to a sexual nature and would send photos of his penis.

The court heard he was persistent with victims who blocked him, making efforts to resume contact by contacting their mothers and friends. He would make payment to victims in return for images, which he then distributed to other paedophiles on social media apps such as Telegram.

Police attended his home on December 21 last year. Upon being arrested, Barnett-Davies responded “I’m f*****”.

During his police interview, he said he would use “X-recorder” to screen record videos sent to him on Snapchat, which would normally be automatically deleted after being viewed once. He claimed he was speaking to children because he was “lonely” and “wanted attention”, and claimed he was “not interested in children” but “liked pretty girls”.

The court heard Barnett-Davies would offer to buy his victims gifts such as vapes and clothes, and would use derogatory language towards them. On one occasion, he asked one victim to send images of her younger sister, who was just six years old.

He also blackmailed his victims, telling one that if she did not send more images of herself, he would post them on his social media account. She responded by sending more images and blocking him, but the victim’s mother noticed a change in her behaviour and she began self-harming.

Another victim said she thought she was “in love” with the defendant’s persona and he told her she was the “most beautiful girl”. He would guilt-trip her into sending images. He went on to contact the victim’s friend and told her the victim was mentally ill. The defendant sent indecent images of the victim to her friends, and one girl threatened to share them and turn them into stickers.

One victim said the defendant would manipulate her and make her feel she was a bad person. She was worried he would turn up at her home and would hurt her family.

Barnett-Davies pleaded guilty to 21 counts of causing/inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, three counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child, 11 counts of distributing indecent images and seven counts of possessing indecent, prohibited and extreme images.

In victim personal statements read to the court, one victim said: “I felt betrayed, I didn’t expect him to do this to me, I trusted him with everything, with conversations we’ve had, things we shared, things I told him about my life and the images I sent him. I feel betrayed as I didn’t know who I was speaking to, I didn’t know he was going to keep the images or screen record them in any way.”

Another victim said: “I feel embarrassed and ashamed, I’m really embarrassed people have seen my body and that I trusted him. I don’t really trust people now… I think about it almost every single day, wondering who has seen the photos, where they might be and will they ever be removed.”

A further victim said: “He gave me compliments about how pretty I was and he just wanted to talk. I felt really, really sorry for him. I would say I am a vulnerable teenager myself. I feel ashamed and embarrassed for what I have done and silly for believing him. I am mortified to know he shared or sold images to other men. I know they will be around for the rest of my life and there’s nothing I can do about it. I feel a bit broken by it, it’s not something I can ever recover from.”

One victim’s mother said: “You are calculated, manipulative and cruel. You preyed on children’s insecurities and groomed them until you found a gap in their vulnerability.”

Another victim said: “I thought you loved me and I was horribly wrong. What you did left an impact on me I may never get rid of. You took advantage of vulnerable children.”

Defence barrister Jac Brown said his client previously worked as a caterer, and this would be his first experience with the criminal justice system. He said these offences will “define the course” of his client’s life.

Sentencing, Judge Daniel Williams said: “You have a deep rooted and entrenched sexual interest in the sexual abuse of young girls. For day after day, month after month and year after year, you preyed on young girls online, you knew where to find your prey and you knew how to catch them. Girls of this age are at a vulnerable stage in their development and many of your victims had additional vulnerabilities which you identified and exploited. You set out to damage your victims and to cause them unending harm.”

The judge added: “You have left an unimaginable trail of misery, your victims self harmed and variously felt betrayed, embarrassed, mortified, humiliated and hurt.”

Barnett-Davies was sentenced to eight years imprisonment with an extended licence period of four years. He was made subject to sex offender notification requirements indefinitely, and to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and restraining orders for 15 years.