A man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual communication with social media profiles he believed were teenage girls.

John Joseph Mongan, of Ruby Close, Hackney, created a fake profile on Facebook under a different name.

Between May 2020 and August 2020 he made contact with six different Facebook profiles, who he believed were all girls between the ages of 12 and 14.

Mongan was convicted by a jury in August of six counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, two counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

The 54-year-old was sentenced on Wednesday (September 28) at Snaresbrook Crown Court. He will be on the sex offenders register for life.

Police said Mongan sent "very demanding and graphic" sexual messages, as well as graphic photos. He tried to arrange telephone and video calls.

He sent pictures of piles of cash, writing things such as "all I want in return is plenty of sex and love from you could you give me all of that".

On August 8 Mongan travelled to Homerton station to meet a "14-year-old girl" but left when he realised the meeting was not genuine. He was arrested that day.

PC Lindsey England, of the Central East Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Team, said: “As part of the investigation I reviewed hundreds of pages of communication. Almost every single page contains extremely sexualised chat from Mongan, with him sometimes giving detailed instructions and descriptions of sexual acts.

“The profiles gave him no encouragement, and instead attempted to remind him of how disinterested and inexperienced they were in sex. Mongan’s methods of manipulation and grotesque use of language are some of the worst I have seen. Mongan used threats of foster homes and promises of love, care and money in an attempt to feed his own sexual fantasies and interests.

“His desire to groom and abuse who he believed to be six different children came above anything else, and he did so without any care of the impact this may have had. His only interests were making every attempt possible to deny and hide his criminal activities. He would have very likely continued this offending if he wasn’t arrested.”