A Tower Hamlets man has been jailed for obtaining over 500 photos of underaged children and asking girls for explicit pictures.

Saner Muharrem, 25, of Isle of Dogs, was jailed for five-and-a- half years by a judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court after being convicted of 11 offences following a two-week trial. Some of the offences include sexual activity with children and encouraging children into sexual activities.

Seven of his victims gave evidence against him in court.

Muharrem used Instagram and Snapchat to ask young girls for inappropriate pictures after befriending them. Police began an investigation in 2021 after intelligence suggested he was uploading the images of the children online.

His phone was seized during a search warrant at his home where the police found he was contacting many underaged girls on Instagram and Snapchat.

Officers spent “countless hours” sifting through thousands of explicit and inappropriate messages Muharrem had sent to prepubescent girls. More than 500 indecent images were also found on his device.

A Sexual Risk Order (SRO) was imposed on Muharrem at Thames Magistrates’ Court on November 23 2022. However, he breached the order and continued to attempt to gain more pictures of minors. Muharrem had tried to meet many underaged girls, the Metropolitan Police said. During one meeting, he kissed a 13-year-old girl without her consent.

Police Constable Simon Marchant-Brown, who led the investigation said Muharren offered his victims money, alcohol and cannabis in order to convince them to send incident images of themselves.

“Today’s sentencing reflects the severity of his offences. He manipulated young girls and would even threaten to leak the images if they did not send more.

“I would like to praise the seven young victims who gave evidence in court; your bravery does not go unnoticed, without you we would not have been able to jail this predator.”