Within one hour of my last blog going up – addresssing the emergence of “DDLG” as a threat to children’s well-being, someone sent me a link to the case of Dominic Nielen-Groen, a 39 year old divorced father of two. He travelled 167 miles from Wolverhampton to Devon to meet up with a 15 year old girl.

They got to know each other initially courtesy of an Instagram “community” (?) called  “Daddy Dom Little Girl”  (DDLG) where Nielen-Groen presented himself as “Papa Bear”.

Their real life rendezvous in Devon was in a play park. After 40 minutes of hugging and talking Nielen-Groen tried to persuade the child to put a dummy in her mouth. When police later went to his home they found a collar with the words “Little Girl” written on it and another dummy. He was convicted of a grooming offence.

They also found “a 50 Shades style contract setting out rules and punishments. The punishments included spanking, self spanking, slaps, cold baths, being tied up, as well as time out and no television or internet. Some rules and penalties were overtly sexual, including bans on masturbation and taking part in sex acts at the behest of ‘Daddy’.”

Nielen-Groen will be sentenced next month. The judge has told him he can expect a substantial prison term.

What also emerged at the trial is that the now 16 year old first joined the group because she was lonely and wanted to find new friends. She ended up with over 3,000 followers and, having incorporated PayPal into her profile, she also made money selling pictures of her “chest and bum”.  This is on Instagram. Not some obscure social media outlet established in a lawless land far, far away.

With links to groups with the same or similar DDLG theme I have also been sent a series of images of very young people posing, wearing medical appliances. The sort one would normally expect to see only in the Accident and Emergency Department of a large hospital or in the room of a patient being treated following a bad fall or a car accident.

I rest my case.

Sometimes I wonder if the world is ready for the internet.