A Redcar man contacted three schoolgirls online and pressured them to send him naked sexual images of themselves.

Kieran Dowdall, 20, then threatened to share the illegal images, if the girls didn't send more.

Dowdall also stored illegal videos of children being sexually abused. Some of the girls in the footage were just three years old.

Teesside Crown Court has heard that Dowdall contacted his victims on a social media app, and pretended to be a girl himself.

He messaged one underage teenager every day, asking her to send him naked photos. The victim did send pictures and Dowdall then sent pictures of his own genitals to her.

"It was only then," Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, told the court, "that she realised he was a man and not a girl". Dowdall used a girl's photo as his profile picture online.

He asked the girl: "Can you call me a paedo?", and later explained, "I like being called it". Dowdall sent the girl detailed instructions on how to pose for the explicit photos.

Ms Atkinson told the court that the prolific social media app user threatened to "leak" the images the girl had sent him, if she didn't send more.

When the victim said she would go to the police, Dowdall told her: "Report me then LMAO. You will get done, not me".

Later the victim told Dowdall that she couldn't send any more images, as "my dad is checking my phone" and the communication ended. Dowdall went on to contact and threaten two other girls in the same way, during the same period.

Ms Atkinson told the court that the third victim "threatened to kill herself if he blocked her" and told him she felt uncomfortable "showing herself".

"She said he earned a lot of money streaming online and he said he'd give her some, if she sent the photos." Dowdall never did send any cash, and the communication came to an end.

The police turned up at his home on February 11, 2024, "after receiving information that he was linked to child abuse material" Ms Atkinson said.

Dowdall was questioned, and told police he had indecent images of children and that he kept "a hidden folder of nude images of girls under 18".

"He said he was aroused by the images" Ms Atkinson added.

Dowdall's online history showed that he sent illegal images of children to another user on Telegram. When the user sent him "adult pornography" in return, "Dowdall complained - 'that's not CP (child pornography)' " Ms Atkinson said.

Dowdall, of Rowantree Gardens in Redcar, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children; three counts of distributing indecent images; three counts of causing a child to engage in sexual communications; and three counts of engaging in sexual communications with a child.

Judge Peter Armstrong handed Dowdall a three-year sentence at a young offenders' institution.

He was made subject to sex offender notification requirements and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.