MP’s safety plea after ‘harrowing’ case of Egremont Snapchat predator | Whitehaven News

THE case of a Cumbrian paedophile who used a fake Snapchat account to target girls as young as eight underlines the need for “robust” social media regulation, says an MP. Egremont man Ryan Cruden, 25, spent months masquerading as a 15-year-old girl so that he could find, befriend and then prey on 20 young girls across Cumbria and the northeast, bullying them into disclosing intimate images. Despite being banned from contacting children online after an earlier sex offence, he set up a fake account on the messaging app before using it to commit his sickening crimes over more than 18 months without being detected. READ NEXT: ‘Evil’ Snapchat pervert targeted girls as young as eight in Cumbria READ NEXT: Victim of Cumbrian paedophile: ‘This evil man has destroyed me’ A court last week heard harrowing accounts from Cruden’s victims, all of them traumatised as a result of his online abuse. He repeatedly used his fake Snapchat account to sexually exploit the girls. On some occasions, he issued threats if the girls failed to do as he said. One girl attempted suicide, while others self-harmed, with some left so distressed that they were unable to speak to detectives about their ordeal
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