Two men have been jailed for abusing dozens of teenage girls they met and blackmailed after posing as teenagers on social media sites and in chatrooms.

A 23-year-old man from Brielle, near Rotterdam, was jailed for four years, six months suspended, for abusing dozens of girls, RTL news reports. Sean O was arrested at the beginning of 2012 on suspicion of involvement in the abuse of 138 girls, after 35 made formal complaints against him.

Marco K, a volleyball coach from Voorburg, was sentenced to two years in jail, 16 months suspended. He faced 15 charges of abuse.

Hyves

The men have also been ordered to pay their victims between €1,000 and €3,000 each.

The men made contact with the girls via social networking sites such as Hyves and Habbohotel, pretending to be teenage boys or girls of the same age. They then encouraged the girls, who were aged 10 to 15, to carry out ‘shocking sex acts’ via webcams.

If the girls refused to continue, the men threatened to publish the photographs or threatened the girls with rape or physical violence.

Police found 86 pornographic images of children on O’s computer, 370 films and 6,000 pornographic conversations. He was also found guilty of distributing child pornography.

K, who had 160 pornographic pictures on his computer, was found by the court to be suffering from a sexual psychiatric condition and was not fully responsible for his actions. He has been banned from working with children, RTL news said.