A married father has become the first person in the UK jailed for encouraging a child to self-harm – after he created a secret online world to control and abuse a young girl.

Karl Davies, from Merseyside, was jailed for 20 years today at Manchester Crown Court. He is the first person to be convicted under the new Online Safety Act for encouraging a child to self-harm.

Davies began targeting the girl in October 2023, when she was 13. He posed as a young boy named Ben, who was around the same age.

Warning: This article contains details some may find distressing

They began talking on Discord, later moving to Snapchat - where he asked for pictures, before other accounts became involved.

At first, detectives thought the girl was being abused by six different men.

Image: The child was ta

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