ABUSER JAILED FOR 20 YEARS FOR SEXUAL OFFENCES AND ENCOURAGING A CHILD TO SELF-HARM
A man responsible for grooming a vulnerable young girl and encouraging her to self-harm while sexually abusing her over several months has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, with an additional five years on license.Karl Davies, born on 6 February 1983 and residing in Wirral, Merseyside, assumed multiple identities online, creating fake social media profiles with different personas to manipulate and groom his victim.
At his plea hearing at Manchester Crown Court on 22 May, Davies admitted to seventeen charges, including ten counts of sexual activity with a child, four counts of grooming, and two counts related to arranging or facilitating child sex offences.
He also pleaded guilty to encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, an offence notably among the first prosecuted under the Online Safety Act 2023, and the first case involving a child.
The sentencing took place on 20 October 2025 following a thorough investigation conducted by GMP officers.
The offences commenced in June 2023 when the girl, then 13, was contacted via Snapchat by a profile named ‘Ben’.
The communication quickly escalated to sharing images and eventually led ‘Ben’ to encourage her to share pictures with another account named ‘Chris’.
Over subsequent weeks, multiple accounts contacted the girl, sometimes appearing and disappearing, involving calls and further sharing of images.
All these accounts were operated by Davies.
These accounts used different aliases and alternated between coercing her to send indecent images and pretending to be supportive.
This pattern persisted for months, during which the girl was coerced into sending various videos.
Some of these videos included her harming herself using items, with Davies encouraging such acts.
The girl later sent injuries’ images to the accounts.
By June 2024, ‘Sean’, one of the accounts, told the girl she needed to meet his ‘friend’ ‘Mark’ for sexual activity.
Later that month, Davies, impersonating ‘Mark’, traveled from his Wirral home to Stockport, where he collected the girl, then 14, in her school uniform.
He subsequently sexually abused her in his car.
This pattern of abuse continued through June and July, with Davies picking her up, abusing her, and sometimes instructing her to send videos of the acts.
During these encounters, some accounts encouraged her to self-harm, with Davies providing a razor during one meeting.
The girl sent images of her injuries to Davies’ social media accounts.
In January 2025, she reported the abuse to police, providing detailed accounts of her experiences.
An investigation swiftly followed, revealing a car linked to Davies traveling from Liverpool to Stockport on one of the days he met with the girl.
Social media analysis traced the accounts to Davies’ Wirral address and linked them to an email account in his name.
Davies was detained on 11 February and chose not to comment during police interviews.
