‘Online grooming was the scariest moment of my life’

Warning: This story contains details of sexual abuse

Danielle was 14 when a man on a children’s gaming website contacted her and told her he was 16.

Now 28 and having waived her right to anonymity, Danielle said her abuser “must have looked exactly like a kid my age and I have no reason to believe otherwise”.

When he persuaded Danielle to meet him in person, she said: “I got in the car, closed the door and before I knew it we were driving and I saw that he was actually 14 or 15 years old. Wasn’t – he was too big.”

In fact, he was three times bigger than that.

The man took Danielle to a remote location and raped her.

He also took intimate photographs of her which he used to blackmail her, a practice known as sextortion.

“He threatened me, saying that if I told anyone, my family would be harmed,” she said.

“It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. At the time, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was scared of the school and people seeing them (the photos). I was scared about my family. “

After her third meeting with the man, Danielle’s father found her messages on her phone and called the police.

Her abuser was later sent to jail.

Danielle, who is from North Kent, is speaking out about the abuse she suffered on social media platforms to raise awareness of the dangers to children and a better experience for abused children in the criminal justice system.

She said: “Anyone with concerns should report immediately.

“There’s always help out there.”

He said that perpetrators of child sexual abuse were “very clever”.

“They know exactly what they’re doing,” he said. “They will research how kids are talking at that time.

“They will research the slang going around and the latest trends.”

Hayley Garner, campaigns manager for the NSPCC, said: “Sextortion can have a really negative impact on a child’s mental health.

“For some people it causes feelings of shame, guilt, anxiety and fear and some have thought about self-harm and suicide.”

Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott said child sexual abuse was an emergency situation.

“We need to have a real conversation about social media use and mobile phone access for people under 16,” she said.

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