British army cadet trainer who tricked teenage boys into performing sex acts online, given 4-year jail term

A military cadet trainer from Wales has been sent to prison for four years after being found guilty of duping around 40 teenage boys into sending indecent videos of themselves, posing as a 15 year-old girl.

Jamie Hopes, 24, from Maesteg, Bridgend county, who was a training sergeant with the Dyfed and Glamorgan Army Cadet Force, pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 15 charges on Monday.

Police traced videos posted on Tumblr to Hopes' IP address in June 2018. They found 50,000 indecent videos and images of children on a couple of electronic devices Hopes owned at the home he lived at with his parents. 

The court heard how Hopes shared some of this content with other pedophiles online, with one file - named "For Baiting" - containing pictures and graphic videos of the girl he was posing as to trick the victims he had met in person and groomed on a number of social media sites. He also used those images to convince boys to film their sexual activities as they thought they were sending videos to a girl.

The Cadet Force, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Defence, is one of the UK’s largest voluntary organizations for young people aged between 12 and 18.

In addition to his jail term, Hopes was banned from contacting any individual under 18 years of age for 10 years and will remain on the ex offenders' register for life.

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