MCKENZIE WINKLE

A teenage boy who encouraged girls to self-harm and commit sexual acts online has been jailed in a flagship case for policing in the region.

Officers from our Police Online Investigations Team (POLIT) have worked tirelessly to secure the first victimless prosecution of its kind in the Midlands, which has resulted in the offender being sentenced today (Tuesday 16 June).

McKenzie Winkle, 18, of Great Wyrley, has been on remand in custody for more than seven months since his first appearance in court in October last year.

Today, he has been jailed for three-years-and-nine-months after he pleaded guilty to two counts of encouraging serious self-harm by another, two counts of attempting to cause / incite a girl 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of making an indecent photograph / pseudo-photograph of a child and one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Our investigation found that Winkle was operating as part of a Com group.

Typically, these are networks of people who carry out serious, high-harm offences against other young people they find online.

Com group offenders, who are often under 18, can use grooming and exploitation tactics to coerce online victims into committing the acts.

Com group offenders are known to compete against each other to cause the highest harm to victims to gain notoriety.

This involves encouraging offences of child sexual abuse, serious violence, cybercrime and extremism.

Uniquely, in this case, officers built all of the evidence and put forward a case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which was victimless in nature.

It meant that we were able to move quickly to apprehend Winkle and prevent him from causing further harm to vulnerable victims online, who could have been anywhere in the world.

To read the full release, use the link in the comments