A SEXUAL predator who groomed girls as young as 12 on the internet and then tried to blackmail them has been sent to jail for four years.

Oliver James Randall, 20, formerly of Gundry Road, Bothenhampton, Bridport, admitted 23 charges – which included engaging a child under 13 in sexual activity, inciting a girl under 13 in sexual activity, grooming children on the internet and making and taking indecent images of children.

A further 60 charges were taken into consideration at Dorchester Crown Court.

The charges related to more than 40 girls aged between 12 and 18 living in Dorset and one in Somerset.

Judge Christopher Harvey Clark said that Randall exploited vulnerable girls and caused them to feel shame, degradation, humiliation and guilt.

He added that this was heightened because Randall would then blackmail the girls by threatening to post the images across the internet.

Dorchester Crown Court heard that Randall contacted children using internet chat sites such as MSN messenger, Myspace and Bebo.

He then groomed them by asking them to send him pictures and using the web camera to get the children to strip or engage in sexual activity whilst being filmed.

The court was told that Randall’s activities came to light after a mother became suspicious about the phone activity of her 12-year-old daughter and checked her phone last December.

She found sexually explicit requests from Randall asking her daughter to meet up with him in Dorchester.

The girl told the police that she had replied to Randall, saying: “That’s disgusting, I am only 12.”

Prosecutor Joanna Morrissey said: “If it wasn’t for this mother being suspicious and contacting the police the activities of Randall may never have come to light.”

The court was told that another girl, aged 13, came forward to the police and said Randall contacted her when he was 18 through Myspace and soon started asking her for sexual images.

Miss Morrissey said the child met him in Somerfield car park in Dorchester and drove to Broadmayne where he parked and carried out sexual activity.

Another girl, 15 at the time of the offence, said to the police that she fell in love with Randall after talking to him on the internet and sent him pictures of her engaged in a sexual act.

Miss Morrissey told the court that Randall then told her he would post video and images of her on the internet if she did not meet up with him.

She met him in his car and they travelled to a nearby field where he filmed her engaging in sexual activity, the court was told.

The judge heard that Randall was arrested in his halls of residence at Southampton University. Police found files on his computer of more than 40 girls in Dorset which included images, graded one to four, and moving images.

Judge Harvey Clark said that this suggested Randall was a predator obsessively collecting a large number of images of children.

The court was told that Randall admitted to all the offences and supplied the police with detailed information about the time and date of all the offences.

In mitigation, Jamie Porter said that his client has had a difficult life because he was bullied at school and took the death of his father very badly.

He said that following the charges he has been rejected by members of his family and has resorted to self-harm in prison.

After the sentencing Detective Inspector Becky Riggs said: “Randall is a predatory sex offender who preyed on children and young girls via the internet.

“This just highlights the dangers of people talking to strangers on the internet.

“Our thoughts and feelings go out to all the people involved in this case and I thank them for their courage and bravery coming forward as reliving the events was traumatic but it ensured the conviction.

“Oliver Randall is now serving time in prison so the people of Dorset are kept safe.”

Randall was told he will remain on licence for a further six years after his prison sentence in order to protect the public. He was also disqualified from working with children.