Paedophile, 23, is jailed for two years after he groomed boys online

Paedophile, 23, is jailed for two years after he used video game Fortnite on Xbox to try and groom boys as young as seven online

  • Adam Syers, 23, has been jailed for two years for trying to groom children
  • He messaged boys as young as seven on video games including Fortnite
  • Last September he walked free from court after posting vile video online
  • Used the username JuicyGamer and let a boy, 12, spend £200 on his card 

Adam Syers (pictured), from Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire

A 23-year-old paedophile has been jailed for two years after using Fortnite to try to groom boys as young as seven online. 

Adam Syers, from Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, previously filmed a toddler and made vile sexual comments before posting the video on Facebook.

Syers – who recorded the sick clip from the window of his home – walked free from court last September.

But within hours he was back online, trying to snare children playing Fortnite and Roblox on Xbox.

Using the username JuicyGamer, he let a 12-year-old boy spend £200 on his credit card and got the child to send him a photo of himself in shorts.

He then targeted a seven-year-old boy, asking him whether he wanted to go on a date with him and be his boyfriend.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Syers, aka Adam Shipley, was handed 10 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, on September 2.

He admitted sending an indecent communication after filming a mother and toddler walking down the street outside his then address in Orford, Warrington last May.

Magistrates gave Syers a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) – banning him from contacting boys online – and told him to comply with the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Register for the same period.

Syers (pictured) previously filmed a toddler and made vile sexual comments before posting the video on Facebook

One the same day as his court appearance the pervert began communicating with a 12-year-old boy via Xbox Live, before their chats progressed onto Instagram.

The boy’s mother noticed a credit card on her son’s Xbox gaming account registered to AG Shipley at Syers’ new address in Newton-le-Willows more than a month later.

Louise McCloskey, prosecuting, said her son explained the card belonged to ‘Adam’, whom he had become friends with online.

The mother asked to chat to then 22-year-old Syers on the Xbox, who explained he let her son buy a game for £7.99.

He had actually allowed £200 of purchases, but claimed he wasn’t good with numbers, was autistic and considered her son to be a friend.

The boy revealed Syers asked him not to tell his parents and to send a picture of himself wearing shorts, which he did.

He said during chats Syers asked him to turn his camera on and sent messages saying he missed him and loved him.

Texts downloaded from the Xbox showed Syers asked him to play Fortnite and Roblox and join Xbox party chats.

Syers had also begun talking to a seven-year-old boy via Xbox Live and TikTok on September 6.

That child’s mother discovered a string of ‘inappropriate messages’ between the two on October 5.

Syers gave the little boy his mobile number, asked ‘can I meet you’ and sent a message saying: ‘I love you.’

The boy said they played Fortnite together and when he told Syers he was seven, he asked if he wanted to go to his house to play football or Fortnite, and to change his Xbox name because he would get in trouble if anyone found out.

Ms McCloskey said: ‘The man also asked whether he wanted to go on a date with him and be his boyfriend. He had also commented that he was fit.’

A 12-year-old boy’s mother noticed a credit card on her son’s Xbox gaming account registered to AG Shipley at Syers’ new address in Newton-le-Willows more than a month later. Pictured, an advert for Fortnite

The mother investigated Syers’ account and found a picture of a man in his 20s and noted his TikTok was ‘full of videos of young boys, none more than 10 years old’.

Syers also failed to provide police with his personal details within the necessary period.

Officers were informed he was adding girls under 16 to his Instagram account and visited his home on September 15.

They found he was using Pornhub, Grindr, Chaturbate, Snapchat and Instagram on his phone.

On Instagram he sent messages to a third unidentified boy – thought to be under 11 – who Syers denied knowing.

Screenshots revealed he had a photo of the boy, asked his age, whether his mother was there, said he loved him, told him ‘this is our secret’, and had live chats with him.

When arrested and interviewed, Syers answered ‘no comment’ to questions about the first two boys, but claimed he thought the third was an adult.

He admitted three counts of breaching his SHPO, failing to comply with notification requirements and breaching his suspended sentence.

A report said he hadn’t attended any rehabilitation appointments since November, showed ‘no insight’, denied a sexual attraction to children and there were ‘significant risk concerns’.

Syers has a conviction for sexual assault on a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity from November 2012. He received a warning for this offence, when he was aged just 14.

Texts downloaded from the Xbox showed Syers asked a boy to play Fortnite and Roblox (pictured) and join Xbox party chats

Natalia Cornwall, defending, said Syers only had ‘himself to blame’ for not taking the chance given to him last year.

She said he now accepted he had a ‘problem’ and ‘a sexual interest in children’.

Ms Cornwall said Syers was immature and diagnosed with ADHD, autism, learning and speech difficulties, and struggled to put on weight because of stomach ulcers.

She said: ‘He has had a difficult upbringing. He was taken into care from a relatively young age, he has suffered abuse whilst in foster care and he also had to deal with the death of his mother.

‘He now has no contact at all with any of his family members and is effectively isolated within the community.’

Judge Rachel Smith accepted Syers was himself a ‘vulnerable individual’ and there was ‘some prospect of rehabilitation’.

She said: ‘Only immediate custody will follow for the range of offences that you have committed in this case.’

The judge said it was a ‘persistent breach risking serious harm’ and jailed him for two years and eight months.

She made a new seven-year SHPO, told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely, and ordered the destruction of his iPhone and Xbox.

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