I was in trouble.I was petrified.It's something you don't want your mum & dad to find out about

Paedo victim urges tech giants to act on new laws

- SALLY HIND

A SCHOOLGIRL blackmailed into joining a paedophile's online "sex slave" network has called on tech giants to act fast on a new safety bill.

Aoife was just 15 when she was targeted by predator Jordan Croft, 26, on a social media site.

The fiend was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year after posing as a 16-year-old boy online and abusing 26 victims - one as young as 12.

Brave Aoife, now 19, is working with children's charity the NSPCC to urge tech giants to better protect young people.

She is one of 100 victims who signed a letter to social media bosses as MPs voted in the new Online Safety Bill last week.

Aoife told the Record how she was groomed by vile Croft on Yubo, before being asked to move to messenger site Telegram. She said: "It took me five minutes to make an account. I thought it was a boy my age I was speaking to.

We were chatting and got on surprisingly well.

"He asked me to send pictures of myself. It was after I sent the first couple that he revealed that he was actually a lot older and said he had a degree in cyber security.

"He made himself seem untouchable, like it didn't matter what I did, no one would find him.

"He wanted me to send him exactly what he'd ask me to send. I had to keep talking to him. I wasn't allowed to go to sleep or use the toilet.

"He said if I didn't keep doing what he requested then my pictures would be sent to my Facebook family and friends.