Two horrified mothers have claimed a pervert sent their underage daughters sexual Instagram messages and indecent images.
Cara Alston, 34, was looking after her teenage daughter and her school friend, last Monday, when she heard the young girls scream before hearing one say ‘I can’t believe he’s just sent a picture of his d**k’.
After taking her daughter’s phone, the shop worker claims she discovered both girls had been receiving messages from an older boy, believed to be 17.
He appeared to have asked them for sex and sent indecent images of himself after starting a conversation two weeks before.
The mother-of-one rang the police after confiscating the phone, but said she felt physically sick when she decided to pose as her daughter, claiming to be 13-years old, and the predator allegedly replied he ‘wasn’t bothered’.
Cara Alston, 34, and Jaine Heyes, with the messages received by their teenage daughters
Ms Alston, from St Helens, Merseyside, said: ‘I felt physically sick, he was sending indecent images to both girls of his private parts. I was so angry.
‘Her Instagram is private but he was still able to send her direct messages because it came through to her message requests.
‘I asked both girls why they hadn’t told me about it and they said they were scared.
‘I was on the phone to the police and I thought ‘I’m just going to see if he knows how young and vulnerable they are’.
‘When he replied saying he wasn’t bothered I was absolutely disgusted. I thought ‘I could kill him’, that’s my little girl he’s talking about.’
Ms Alston claims the man asked to see pictures of the underage girls and asked them whether they would allow him to perform sexual acts with them.
After accepting his message request, the man allegedly told the girls how attractive they are, asked them what they thought to the size of his penis and if he would allow them to have sexual intercourse with them.
Ms Alston told the other girl’s mother Jaine Heyes, 40, and the distraught parents decided to warn others to be vigilant about teenagers use of social media and who they interact with.
The women claim other parents have contacted them to tell them the same man has approached their daughters too.
Ms Heyes said: ‘As soon as we put it on social media, other people started contacting us telling us he had done the same thing to their young daughters.
‘It has really upset me, it feels like I’m in a living nightmare because all four of my children are girls.
‘They shouldn’t have to put up with this sort of behaviour.’
Now Ms Alton is waiting for Merseyside Police to take action and says she wants to see the culprit behind bars after the incident has left the children scared and withdrawn.
She said: ‘You hear about it on the news but you never think it will actually happen to your own daughters.
‘Both girls haven’t been the same since, my daughter struggles to open up anyway but looking back over the last few weeks she has been very withdrawn, and now they’re both worried about using their phones.’
A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: ‘We are investigating reports inappropriate messages were sent via Instagram to a young girl.
‘A report was received that the messages had been sent as private messages. Enquiries into the incident are ongoing.’
Detective Inspector Yoseph Al-Ramadhan said: ‘In this instance, the child recognised the messages were inappropriate, and made a parent aware who contacted us. That is exactly the right thing to do.
‘I want to take this opportunity to re-iterate the importance of setting parental controls on computers, games consoles and electronic devices to keep your children safe, so they are not exposed to potentially harmful and inappropriate material online.
‘I would also strongly advise parents to be satisfied that they know who their children are engaging with.’
A spokesman for Cheshire Constabulary, which the case has been transferred to from Merseyside Police, said there were no active proceedings.
Instagram said the platform does not tolerate child exploitation and confirmed the account had been removed for violating community guidelines.
A spokesman for Facebook, on behalf of Instagram, added: ‘Inappropriate contact with minors is not allowed on Instagram and we use technology to proactively remove it.
‘If we identify suspicious activity we act quickly to remove offending accounts, working closely with law enforcement and child protection authorities in the UK.’