LEE Christie is every parent's nightmare.
His victims, typically insecure teenage girls looking for adulation, thought they were chatting online with young men.
In one fake profile, Christie posed as a 17-year-old boy with a six pack stomach.
But the true face behind the facade was a 43-year-old alcoholic from Newark who bragged to other paedophiles on forums about his skill in tricking and abusing children.
In all he would spend up to 16 or 17 hours a day targeting children online.
Christie is now behind bars - serving an eight-year sentence handed to him at Nottingham Crown Court last week.
Cases like his are the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of the threat to children posed by people abusing the internet, Nottinghamshire Police is now warning.
The force's Sexual Exploitation Investigation Unit, (SEIU) which effectively replaced the Vice Squad in 2003, says tracking Notts-based online predators is taking up a growing portion of its caseload.
Detectives say parents need to be more aware of how easy it is for children to get online – and need to learn how to spot danger.
"Christie's mindset is he can abuse children from the comfort of his bedroom – he doesn't even need to leave the house," warns Detective Inspector Martin Hillier, of SEIU.
"He used this photograph, posing as a 17-year-old with a washboard stomach, he goes on websites and sends friend requests out to girls, looking for those that are vulnerable or seeking adulation.
"They then 'friend' him, and he's learnt to 'text talk' as teenagers do.
"He entices them in to sexual chat and then gets them to send a photograph."
Once he had indecent pictures or video of them, Christie would trap the girls in a 'terrifying world' where he would get them to do as he said by threatening to publicly upload the pictures online or send them to their parents.
He used the tactic to pressure one 14-year-old girl into cutting herself while he watched on a webcam.
DI Hillier added: "He's the worst individual that we've dealt with, and has been recognised as one of the worst in the country.
"He was almost a professional paedophile."
But Christie's skill at getting what he wanted was ultimately his undoing.
"He basically was bragging on chat forums saying he had a system he would use to get these images, saying to other paedophiles 'I can tell you how to do it'," said DI Hillier.
Through these posts police identified an IP or Internet Protocol address, which eventually led them to his computer and his front door in a raid last January.
Following DI Hillier's comments, Leonie Smith, of Notts support charity Incest and Sexual Abuse Survivors (ISAS), said online abuse is a "massive social problem".
She said: "We get new referrals for all kinds of abuse every day.
"I think that people don't want to believe that this type of thing happens to a high number of people because it is so horrific – but people need to know.
"Parents need to be aware so they can put things in place to protect their children."
Christie, of Barnby Gate, Newark, persuaded his victims to strip and carry out indecent acts, manipulating and threatening ten victims aged 13-16, and accumulating thousands of indecent images of children.
He admitted 23 charges and was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court last Tuesday.
His home was raided by police in January last year, and 70,000 indecent images and videos of children were found on two computers, as well as another 3,000 images of extreme pornography.
DI Hillier added: "Some parents think the only way their children could be targeted is if they are using a laptop or desktop computer, but the web is now on tablets, mobiles and games consoles – some parents don't fully realise that.
"In terms of being aware, I'd say, try and be interested in what your child does online, rather than intrusive.
"Ultimately our message is: 'don't let the internet baby sit your child'."
