Youth worker from Southampton pretended to be a girl and used Instagram to groom boys
A youth worker from Southampton pretended to be a girl online and used Instagram to groom boys.
Cameron Osman, 44, from Southampton, used to be a children’s holiday camp manager.
It was online where he groomed more than 70 teenage boys by pretending to be a 16-year-old girl.
He was investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) which found he used the online alias ‘Lizzielemon’ to identify his victims on Instagram, MyLol and Love Crush, before moving them on to Google Hangouts, Discord and Skype.
He engaged in sexualised chat with them revolving around a fantasy online world. He never identified himself, instead telling victims his camera was broken.
Osman would tell his victims that ‘Lizzielemon’ was from Bristol or Birmingham, that he had a fetish for dominating boys in school uniform and sports kit, and for conducting teacher/student role plays.
The offending took place between 2020 and 2021.
The NCA tracked Osman down to a friend’s address in Crowborough, East Sussex, in September 2021 and arrested him.
He had resigned from his job at a holiday camp activity centre in Hailsham a few days earlier.
His laptop and mobile phone were seized, and Osman was found to have contacted 76 boys in the UK aged between 12 and 16 during the offending period. All have been safeguarded.
Officers found no evidence of Osman grooming children at the activity centre.
Investigators in the United States also uncovered chat logs showing sexualised communication by Osman with underage boys in 27 countries. He also searched online for underage boys in Columbia, where the NCA said he was planning to visit.
Osman was released on bail as the investigation continued, but proceeded to offend again, leading to his arrest in March this year after a further victim was identified. Osman pretended to be a younger man on this occasion and shared photos of himself.
Osman pleaded guilty to 36 separate charges yesterday (May 2) including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, sexual communication with a child, and making two category C indecent images of children.
NCA Operations Manager Danielle Pownall said: “Cameron Osman callously preyed on vulnerable teenage boys, masquerading as a teenage girl for his own sexual gratification.
“I have no doubt, if we had not stopped Osman he would have gone on to commit more severe offending.
“We will continue to work with our partners across the world to combat the perpetrators of online child sexual abuse, and hold people like Osman accountable for their crimes.”
Osman is due to be sentenced on Friday, 30 June.
The NCA said anyone being pressured or threatened into sending sexual images or videos online should remove themselves immediately from the conversation, not respond further to any contact, and report the matter to police or a trusted adult.