Siah Riley, 35, from Derby, admitted carrying out a raft of sexual offences and blackmail against 121 young victims between 2021 and 2023
A prolific sex offender has been told that “a life sentence is not out of the question” after admitting offences against 121 young victims.
Derby Crown Court heard that Siah Riley, 35, created a fake online profile posing as a teenage boy and persuaded victims – many of them underage – to send indecent images or videos of themselves carrying out sex acts, while naked and partially clothed.
Riley saved screenshots of the images sent to him on Snapchat and organised them into files by name. When his victims stopped sending images, he blackmailed them by threatening to share the photographs, Derbyshire Live reports.
During the course of his offending, the defendant, of Walbrook Road, Derby, targeted girls as young as 12 years old. The court heard that all were real victims rather than decoys, such as profiles set up by paedophile hunters or undercover police officers posing as children to snare offenders.
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It took 45 minutes for all of the counts to be put to the defendant. Riley pleaded guilty to 144 of the 145 offences when he appeared from custody. A further charge of arranging or facilitating a child sex offence will remain on file.
Remanding him in custody and adjourning sentence until later in the spring, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Before I sentence you, I will need as much information about you in order to do what I am going to do. Obviously it is going to be a prison sentence and obviously it is going to be very long.
“Quite frankly this is a very, very, unusual case even for a judge and ex-barrister as experienced as me. There are 121 victims and these offences are not like, for example, burglaries where there are TICs (other offences to be taken into consideration).
“You have got a serious previous conviction and a life sentence is not out of the question. But if it is not going to be a life sentence it is going to be one of many years.”
The offences to which Riley pleaded guilty all took place between 2021 and 2023. While most of the victims were based in the UK, some are believed to be overseas.
Riley admitted:
- 12 counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
- Nine counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.
- 45 counts of causing or inciting a child under the age of 16 to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
- 49 counts of causing or inciting a child under the age of 16 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.
- Five counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child.
- Two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in prostitution or pornography.
- 22 counts of blackmail.
Judge Smith asked Leanne Summers, prosecuting: “This is an unusual presentation of the evidence, how many of the 121 victims are real and how many are decoys?”
She replied: “They are all real people but not all have provided (victim impact) statements.”
Riley is due to be sentenced on May 7 at a hearing expected to last the full day.
