A pervert threatened to post a mother’s video of her child on the dark web if she didn’t sexually abuse them for his depraved gratification.
Gabriel Nile made contact with the victim before befriending them on social media and gaining access to her posted videos.
The 22-year-old made that "deeply unpleasant and sinister threat" shortly after making contact with the victim, who lives outside North East.
Teesside Crown Court heard how the mother had posted an innocent video of their child and shared it with close friends and relatives.
Ian Windridge, prosecuting, said: "She took a video of [the child] opening presents. The child had no clothes on."
He said the video resurfaced as an online memory and the victim became concerned when the defendant downloaded the short clip.
When the victim confronted Nile about his behaviour he replied - he "wanted a picture of the woman playing with her child ‘down below’.
Mr Windridge said Nile then attempted to blackmail the woman threatening to post the video on the dark web.
He said the woman reported the social media account to her local police and they traced the IP address to Cleveland Police who arrested the defendant at his home.
Nile, also known as Thomson, of Chesterton Road, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to blackmail and arranging to commission a child sex offence.
Calum McNicholas, mitigating, said his client had suffered from developmental problems throughout his childhood and attended a specialist school.
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He added: “He fully accepted responsibility for these offences in interview.”
Judge Francis Laird KC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, sentenced Nile to a total of 30 months in prison for both offences.
He told the defendant he had made a ‘deeply unpleasant and sinister threat’ to the victim.
Nile was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders’ register for life.
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