A HEREFORD man has been jailed for more than two years for sexually grooming three schoolgirls online.

Ryan Saville, 25, posed as an 18-year-old giving a false identity as he bullied the girls aged 13, 14 and 15 into sending him naked selfies of themselves.

He sent them to a friend and threatened the youngsters that he would send the pictures to their family and friends.

Saville, of Escley Drive, was eventually arrested after his phone was traced to his home in Hereford.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe told Teesside Crown Court that Saville, who had a girlfriend, had contacted the girls by social media sites Facebook and KIK.

He contacted a 13-year-old girl, whose age was clearly visible on the apps, and increasingly pressurised her to send a naked photo from the waist down, which she did.

A 15-year-old girl had sent a topless selfie to a friend.

Saville contacted her on Facebook saying he had the image and that they would go viral unless she sent him full-body pictures of herself.

Mr Newcombe said a 14-year-old girl was contacted by Saville between December 1 and December 31, 2014 asking for topless photographs.

He added: "She eventually gave in, sending him the requested topless selfie.

"She said: 'He must have sent me 10 messages asking me to send those pics.'

“He persisted, threatening to post sexual rumours about her on the net. Eventually he shared the same photo with a friend.

“Internet traces on his phone led to his home in Hereford.”

Louise Harrison, defending, said: "He does not want to justify his behaviour.

"Clearly now he recognises and had very soon recognised that it is certainly not a victimless group of offences and that those young girls would be stressed by what he was doing. He has no relevant offending previously."

Miss Harrison said at the time his life was going nowhere.

Judge Howard Crowson told Saville: “You posed as an 18-year-old man to represent yourself as a teenager to teenage girls and you managed to persuade by bullying and threats three teenage girls to send you, one of them only 13-years-old, to send you indecent images of themselves.

“I take the view that the age of the youngest girl together with the threats are aggravating features.

“There was a very worrying pattern of behaviour by you.”

Saville was jailed for 26 months, given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him for 10 years from contact with girls under 16 and restricting his use of the internet, and he was ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

He pleaded guilty to nine charges of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, two of causing a child to watch a sexual act, and two of distributing indecent photographs between December 1, 2013 and February 9, 2014.