A FORMER PGL camp manager who groomed more than 100 teenage boys online by pretending to be a 16-year-old girl has been jailed.

Cameron Osman, 45, from Southampton, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison plus five years on licence today (November 1) at St Albans Crown Court. He has also been given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

Osman, who worked for the Herefordshire-based company PGL at its Windmill Hill site in Sussex, would engage his victims in sexualised chat revolving around a fantasy online world as he pretended to be a teenage girl with the alias "Lizzielemon". He would never identify himself to victims, telling them his camera was broken on video calls.

He would claim that "Lizzielemon" was from Bristol or Birmingham, and told them of his fetishes for dominating boys in school uniform and sports kit, and teacher/student role play.

The National Crime Agency had tracked Osman down to his friend's address in Crowborough, Sussex, in September 2021. He was arrested just days after he resigned from his job at the children's holiday site owned by Herefordshire business PGL, which has headquarters in Ross-on-Wye.

His laptop and mobile phone were seized, and he was found to have contacted over 100 boys in the UK and overseas during the offending period between 2020 and 2021. He had been planning to visit Colombia, and had been searching online for underage Colombian boys.

Officers found no evidence of Osman grooming children at the PGL centre.

Osman was released on bail after his arrest, but he proceeded to offend again, leading to his re-arrest on March 27 this year when a further victim was identified. He had pretended to be a younger man on this occasion and shared photos of himself.

Osman pleaded guilty to 36 separate charges at St Albans Crown Court on May 2, including causing a child to engage in sexual activity, sexual communication with a child, and making two indecent images of children.

In impact statements read before the court, one victim said: "This was an adult man and I just want to erase it from my memory, as it's vile and wrong."

Another victim's mother said: "He struggles to talk about what happened because he is embarrassed and humiliated."

Another parent said her son tried to take his own life due to what happened. She said: "Our boy became withdrawn, lost his appetite, his enthusiasm and positivity. He had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep and would not or could not tell us what was going on.

"People think that online grooming is victimless. I now truly understand."

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Bethany Raine, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "Cameron Osman created fake online personas.

"Posing as a teenage girl he manipulated numerous boys into believing they were in a relationship and engaged them in sexually explicit conversations. Some were tricked into performing sexual activity on camera for Osman's gratification. His offending continued even after his initial arrest.

"The CPS is determined to help stop the impact of these crimes on victims."

A spokesman for PGL said: "We are appalled and disgusted by the behaviour of this former employee.

"Despite the fact that these activities took place solely online, and reassurance from the National Crime Agency that none of these charges involved our guests, we are sickened by these actions and our thoughts are with the victims and their families.

"At PGL we have stringent safeguarding checks for all employees, including enhanced DBS clearance before and during employment. It is always unacceptable for a child, young person or adult to experience abuse of any kind."