Daniel Willacy, aged 29, of Woking, Surrey, has been sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment after admitting a series of child sexual offences involving the online grooming of a nine-year-old girl.
The court heard that Willacy initiated contact with the young victim on Instagram and Snapchat while concealing his true identity behind an online alias.
The communications quickly escalated into explicit sexual demands, with Willacy pressuring the primary-school child to record and send indecent media.
During one documented period of contact, Willacy sent 36 messages to the child within a 26-minute window, repeatedly demanding that she provide indecent photographs and videos.
The exploitation was discovered in February 2024 when the victim’s mother and sister inspected her mobile phone and uncovered the sexually explicit message exchanges.
Surrey Police launched an immediate investigation and submitted the child’s mobile phone for digital forensic analysis.
Examiners recovered the complete communication logs alongside a video file that investigators confirmed the young girl had been groomed and coerced into producing.
Despite Willacy’s efforts to mask his identity behind digital aliases, law enforcement cyber teams established that the Instagram account used to contact the child had been accessed on multiple dates from his home address in Woking.
He was subsequently arrested and brought before the courts.
Willacy entered guilty pleas to three offences:
- Causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity
- Sexual communication with a child
- Attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming
Passing sentence, the judge handed Willacy an immediate custodial term of 54 months (four years and six months) in prison.
The court also made him subject to a 10-year restraining order to safeguard the young victim and prevent any future contact.
Release Calculation: Under UK sentencing legislation governing standard determinate custodial sentences of less than seven years, early release provisions apply at the halfway mark. Willacy is required to serve two years and three months (27 months) in prison custody before becoming eligible for automatic release on licence, where he will serve the remainder of the sentence under the supervision of the Probation Service.
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