A former Manchester squash coach who groomed teenage boys into sending him naked images of themselves has been jailed.
Hirusha Henricus,26, of Furness Avenue, Ashton-under-Lyne, was sentenced to 14 years at Manchester Crown Square today.
He pleaded guilty to ten counts of causing or inciting sexual activity with a child, three counts of rape, one count of attempt rape, one count of possessing an indecent image of a child and one count of causing a child to watch a sexual act.
The counts involve a total of ten victims including children Henricus had access to through his role.
In September 2014 police received a report Henricus had inappropriately messaged a boy asking him to perform sexual acts.
He was subsequently arrested and after officers seized his computer and phone the full extent of his offending was revealed.
The devices showed hundreds of conversations with victims that would start off as friendly chat before becoming sexualised and explicit.
Henricus would often find out what the teenagers’ insecurities and vulnerabilities were before manipulating them into exposing themselves over webcam or sending photos.
On other occasions he would propose a series of ‘dares’ to get them to strip and had different aliases to dupe the victims into thinking they were chatting with someone else.
In another case he spent months building up a rapport with the victim, eventually convincing them to meet him in person where he then sexually abused him.
Detective Inspector Lewis Hughes, from GMP’s Major Incident Team, said: “Henricus abused his position to prey on vulnerable teenagers to fulfil his own perverse sexual desires.
“His depravity knew no bounds, creating aliases to take advantage of and manipulate innocent children into giving him what he wanted.
“He knew these children were under age and he didn’t care. He actively sought them out to commit a catalogue of sexual offences against them and did not once think about the physical and emotional abuse he was inflicting on them.
“The boys have been incredibly brave in helping police with this investigation and I can only hope that seeing Henricus sentenced to 14 years in prison will provide them with some closure.”
