Ryan Caine, 23, has been jailed for five years and four months after using the online gaming platform Roblox to target underage girls for his own sexual gratification. He was sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Friday, October 16, after pleading guilty to multiple sexual offences involving children.
Offences and Sentencing
Caine's offences included six counts of causing a girl to engage in sexual activity, five counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child, five counts of causing a child to look at an image of sexual activity, one count of possessing indecent images of children and three counts of making indecent images of children.
He was also made subject to a 30-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a 10-year restraining order.
Investigation and Evidence
The court heard how Caine's offending came to light after he contacted a 12-year-old girl through Roblox before moving their conversations to WhatsApp. During their exchanges, he sent the child multiple explicit images and videos, engaged in sexualised conversations and encouraged her to take part in sexual activity.
Caine was arrested on April 16, 2025, following a warrant at his home in Widnes, where officers seized two mobile phones. An examination of the devices uncovered messages between Caine and five other children, aged between 13 and 16. In those conversations, he shared indecent images of himself and encouraged the children to engage in sexual activity.
Officers also discovered 86 indecent images of children stored on the devices, spanning Categories A to C, with Category A representing the most serious classification.
Police Response
Caine, of Deacon Road, Widnes, refused to answer questions during a police interview but was subsequently charged with the offences.
Detective Constable Luke Chadwick said: “I welcome the sentence handed to Caine, who was left with no choice but to plead guilty to all of the charges as a result of the messages and indecent images that we discovered on his devices.”
He added: “He was well aware that his victims were underage, and as a 23-year-old man he knew what he was doing was wrong, but despite this he continued with his deceitful actions. Through the use of social media, he specifically targeted young girls, plying them with sexualised messages and indecent images in order to fulfil his own sexual desires.”
Chadwick said the case should act as a reminder for parents and guardians to warn children of the dangers of communicating with people via social media, to check that they are using it safely and to keep an eye out for any warning signs of sexual exploitation.
