Crimes against children online are more prevalent than ever - especially with the rise of social media.
More and more children are using the internet and social media to connect with others.
And while controls are in place which allow parents to monitor their kids' activities online, determined predators have found ways around them.
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Increasingly, cases appear before the courts where paedophiles approach children online, posing as someone else or pretending to be their friend.
These criminals may never actually meet their intended target, but their depraved offences are no less serious for it.
All these offenders are ones parents should know about.
Marc Harmer
55-year-old Marc Harmer tried to meet children on Grindr after grooming them.
And in disturbing chats, he bragged to other like-minded predators about having sex with a teenage boy.
Harmer said it didn't happen, and his barrister dismissed it as 'perverse bravado'.
He later tried to meet up with someone who he thought was a 14-year-old boy.
However, he soon realised that he had instead been lured by a paedophile hunter group and the police were called.
Officers cracked the PIN code to his mobile phone after he had refused to reveal it, and analysis revealed he had chatted on Grindr with two real teenage boys.
In vile online chats with different profiles, Harmer asked their age, enquired what kind of sexual activity they were interested in and often exchanged pictures.
Harmer, of Ridge Hill Lane, Stalybridge, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child; four counts of attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence; two counts of sexual communication with a child; one count of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; and one count of possessing an indecent image of a child.
In October he was jailed for five years and was ordered to sign the sex offender's register for 10 years.
Thomas Morton
Convicted paedophile Thomas Morton posed as a schoolgirl online to incite young boys to send indecent pictures of themselves - he then shared them in an online paedophile ring.
The 34-year-old was being investigated for possession of indecent images when police stumbled across an app on his phone containing 18 named folders of children.
From there, they found a large number of social media accounts which he was using, posing as a girl aged between 12 and 14, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Officers from the GMP Sexual Crime Unit then discovered Morton had been using an encrypted dark web site to chat to a group of paedophiles.
There, they swapped the vile images and discussed tactics on how to get more footage, it was said.
Police identified 14 of the victims - aged between 8 and 15 at the time of the offences - from across the United Kingdom and United States of America.
Morton, of Percy Street, Bury , pleaded guilty to three different indictments: 1: Three counts of making indecent images; one count of distributing indecent images; 17 counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity; 2: One count of breach of sexual harm prevention order; 3: Three counts of making indecent photographs of children.
In July he was jailed for 10 years with an extended period of six years on licence and was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely. He must sign the Sex Offender’s Register for life.
Simon Hammerton
33-year-old Simon Hammerton believed he was going to meet an 11-year-old girl.
He brought with him to Ashton-under-Lyne bus station a bag of alcohol and condoms.
But instead he was met by a paedophile hunter group who were posing as young girls online and was investigated by GMP.
Detectives seized his laptops and mobile phones and established that in June, Hammerton had been speaking with two 'girls' from Leicestershire and Southampton who he believed were both 12-years-old.
During their online conversations, he would regularly tell them he wanted to kiss them and encouraged one girl to send him photos of her in her school uniform, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Hammerton was also in contact with two other 'girls', one he believed to be 11-years-old and the other 13.
During both conversations, Hammerton would speak sexually and sent them images and videos of him naked, including one video he sent to the 11-year-old girl of him masturbating and ejaculating.
On the day of his arrest in July this year, Hammerton had arranged to meet the girl he believed to be 11-years-old at Ashton bus station.
Hammerton, of Auburn Avenue, Hyde, was jailed for five years and four months and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order in September.
He admitted five counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and two counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
Mohammed Adia
Mohammed Adia launched a tirade of ‘disgusting’ messages on social media to two ‘girls’ who he thought were 12 and 13-years-old.
Over a two-month period, Adia, 51, bombarded the two ‘girls’ with messages, asking for pictures of them in their school uniforms - even asking one to take pictures while in school and demanding that another performed sex acts on herself.
However, little did he know the accounts on messaging platforms, including Kik, Snapchat and Skype, were being run by undercover police officers.
At the time, he was living at home with his elderly mother, who he had taken on caring responsibilities for after his father was murdered in 2002, Bolton Crown Court heard.
The court also heard how Adia, who used the pseudonym ‘Salim’ during the conversations with the two accounts, displayed ‘grooming behaviour’.
Adia, of Quebec Street in Deane, would instruct the ‘girls’ not to tell anyone about their chats, reminding them to delete their conversations every day.
In June he was jailed for 28 months, placed on the sex offenders’ register and made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
David Barnes
David Barnes had planned to meet a 14-year-old girl in Piccadilly Gardens for sex.
Instead he was met by paedophile hunters, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
When he arrived he was ‘humiliated’, having expected to be met by the 'girl' he had groomed online.
But the girl was actually an adult from the paedophile hunter group 'Predators Exposed Sting Team'.
Barnes, from Bury, had sexualised chats with the girl online, and said he would 'take her virginity'.
Prosecutors said it was clear that Barnes was 'fully aware' that the 'girl' was 14.
The 'vulnerable' girl had told him that her mother was an alcoholic, and that her father had died years earlier.
In the days prior to the scheduled meeting, the conversation became 'more overtly sexual' and once he was snared by the group he was met with a 'fairly unwelcome reception'.
Barnes, of Glenboro Avenue, Bury, pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and attempting to meet a child following grooming.
He was jailed for 16 months in August this year, must sign the sex offender's register for 10 years, and a sexual harm prevention order was imposed for the same period.
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