A 22-year-old man has appeared before a special court sitting in relation to alleged online child sexual offences including blackmail.
Cameron Mullan, from Claragh Hill Drive, Kilrea is charged with sexually communicating with two boys, inciting them to engage in sexual activity, possessing indecent child imagery and blackmail.
A police officer told Dungannon Magistrates’ Court all charges could be connected.
She explained on 10 November police received a report from the mother of a child who had been sent sexual messages from Mullan.
The boy, however, did not wish to make a complaint.
Then on 6 January the mother of another boy disclosed he had been sent and had sent sexually explicit messages on Instagram.
This began after he received a friend request from Mullan on 22 December, whom he did not know.
After some general exchanges Mullan asked the boy, “Do you like riding women?
Over the next week the boy asked if Mullan had a good Christmas who replied, “Much w***ing over it.”
He requested an image of the boy’s legs which was refused, but followed this with “Would you show me you c*** if I showed you mine?”
The boy asked why Mullan said that and he replied, “It was just a joke.”
However, he again requested an image of the boy’s legs, who feeling coerced, complied.
Mullan then asked for an image of the boy’s genitals which disturbed him.
He found an online image and sent this but Mullan immediately knew this was not what he’d asked for.
A short time later he sent a video of him performing a sexual act on himself and offering to “teach” him.
Another friend request was received, a female profile named ‘Emily’ in England.
They exchanged messages for a while before ‘Emily’ wanted to “get to the sex stuff”.
The boy wasn’t interested so ‘Emily’ requested they move to the Telegram App and told him to contact another profile.
On doing so the boy was informed, “There were enough images to ruin his life and they were doomed if they did not pay money.”
Police returned to the first boy who agreed to provide a statement.
He too had received a friend request and exchanges quickly turned sexualised.
The boy didn’t understand but took screenshots of the messages which he found distressing.
He had been instructed to send a sexual image then received the message, “Trust me, I’ll ruin you and share it until it goes viral”.
Mullan was arrested and generally provided no comment although denied blackmail.
Objecting to bail, the officer said while Mullan has no criminal record he was previously reported for similar matters, but none resulted in prosecution.
In 2021 he was cautioned for paying a child for nude images then later arrested for going into a shed with a different child who claimed there was attempted sexual assault.
This child later withdrew his complaint so the case went no further.
However, Mullan did confirm he had gone to the shed with the boy but this wasn’t enough to secure prosecution.
He was arrested again in 2022 after his partner discovered he was using her phone to contact underage boys, but he was acquitted when she refused to attend court.
The officer said, “Police believe he used his own profile to befriend people then switched to ‘Emily’ to get the victims to switch to Telegram, where the blackmail occurred while posing as someone else.
“He has come to police attention mostly for activity with boys under 15. He uses social media to groom them and the latest offending shows an exacerbation with blackmailing.”
District Judge Barney McElhome remarked, “I expect this to go to Crown Court and I’m making that clear now. These are very serious offences and potentially devastatingly damaging to young people.”
Refusing bail he added, “Someone like this is not fit to walk among the rest of us. I regard this individual as extremely dangerous.”
Mullan will appear again by video-link on 22 January.
