A 21-year-old man has been given a sentence totalling 13 and a half years for more than 30 separate offences involving the online sexual abuse and exploitation of schoolgirls.
Samuel Carragher targeted 14 girls aged from 12 to 15 over three years starting in 2022, telling them to engage in sexual acts and send him video or photographs.
In some cases, the girls sent him more material after he threatened to share their intimate pictures and, in some cases, he paid them for clips and shots.
Whatever Carragher may have told his victims, he went ahead and distributed the images to other children and to adult men.
Carragher, of Acacia Road, Newhaven, pleaded guilty to 33 sexual offences and, at Lewes Crown Court on Monday (17 August), Judge Martin Huseyin passed an extended sentence.
Judge Huseyin found that Carragher was dangerous in law, posing a significant threat of committing further serious offences.
The judge imposed an extended sentence of 13 and a half years including 10 and a half years in custody.
Carragher will have to spend at least seven years in jail and serve any remaining time up to the end of 13 and a half years on licence and under supervision.
He admitted causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, paying for the sexual services of a child and sexual communication with a child.
He also admitted threatening to share intimate photographs or film, sending a photograph or film of genitals, making and distributing indecent photographs of a child and causing a child to watch a sexual act.
Sussex Police said that detectives started an investigation, an operation known as Op Orion, in June last year after they were alerted to suspicious online activity.
Carragher was arrested on Thursday 26 June 2025 and police seized a number of devices from his address.
When they checked his devices, they found significant evidence of online child sexual exploitation involving several young girls around the country between dates in 2022 and 2025.
Sussex Police said: “Many of the offences involved instructing and inciting the children to engage in sexual acts and offering payment for the images. Carragher then distributed these images to other children and to other adult men.”
He was ordered to register as a sex offender indefinitely and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).
Detective Constable Ana Wellfare, from the Online Child Abuse Team, said: “Carragher’s actions were appalling and involved a large number of children.
“The impact his behaviour had on his young victims cannot be underestimated. Such crimes cause lasting harm and have no place in our society.
“Carragher will now spend a significant period behind bars where he can no longer pose any threat to children or the wider public.
“We take all reports of abuse extremely seriously. If you believe you may be a victim or know someone who might be, please come forward. We will listen and we will support you.”
