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00:00CLOBY WARDLEY
00:03Chloe was quite flirtatious.
00:05But it very, very quickly turned sexualised.
00:09She gained their trust to get them to send pictures, videos
00:14on themselves.
00:16The download revealed over 352 victims,
00:2141,000 videos and 140,000 images.
00:27It was a huge library of abuse.
00:30We've had children that have come very close to suicide.
00:34To everybody outside, Jay Lang was a family man,
00:38but he's got another persona online that nobody knew about.
00:42A 16-year-old, extremely attractive young woman called Chloe.
00:47So, living a double life, basically.
00:50He was a bit arrogant.
00:51Keep digging.
00:52That's the kind of terrifying thing about it, really.
00:54Keep digging, he won't, trust me.
00:56Sure.
00:57I'm 100% he won't.
00:59I think this case demonstrates how the internet can be used for evil.
01:04Essex, 2018, and a young woman called Chloe Norris begins contacting teenage boys on social media.
01:21Chloe took many different guises.
01:26Brunette hair was the picture that we found kind of quite regularly.
01:31Had the lure of being an attractive young girl to potentially 11 to 17-year-old boys.
01:38Somebody that they would want to speak to and probably would feel quite flattered that that person had approached them.
01:46You've got boys going through puberty, possibly lacking in confidence or haven't had a relationship with a female before.
02:01And then you've got a girl online who's approached them, who's coming across as interested in them and luring them into a false sense of security.
02:22When we're meeting people in real life, we are exposed to social cues, our inhibitions are activated, and we go through a number of gradual trust-building processes that help us evaluate the person in front of us.
02:39In the online space, a lot of these things are removed.
02:44The relationship started off very friendly.
02:47Chloe would pay lots of compliments to the boys.
02:53We knew it wasn't just Snapchat, it was also Instagram that Chloe was offending on.
02:57I think we have to remember that the adolescent brain is one that is heightened when it comes to perceived social rewards, sexual interests, romantic interests.
03:08It's a developing part of life.
03:11Chloe was quite flirtatious.
03:15But it very, very quickly turned sexualised.
03:21Chloe began sharing nude images with the boys she had approached.
03:27Chloe sharing an image of her and asking in return the boys to send images back.
03:34And it started off with a top off for the boys, and then progressed into, you know, sharing images, indecent images of themselves.
03:45Videos of them masturbating, videos of them doing things to themselves.
03:49It was just on, like, a random evening around, I think, about seven.
04:00I just got a notification saying, like, Chloe Norris had added me.
04:05I just accepted it.
04:06And that's just how we got to chatting on Snapchat.
04:11I think there's a really different mindset that young people, particularly children, have, where it's acceptable to share images.
04:23Naked images, compromising images.
04:26Sometimes with strangers, some people you don't know.
04:29But it puts people in a potentially very, very difficult situation if that relationship breaks down.
04:38Once Chloe received the intimate images of the young boys, things would take a much darker turn.
04:44She sent a picture of herself and then asked for one in return, and it sort of interested me.
04:57We sort of started to exchange pictures, and it seemed sort of trustworthy.
05:04And then she sent a message saying, I've taken, like, recordings of me and said, if you don't keep sending me stuff and do what I say, this is going to go to all your friends, all your family and your school.
05:21And it just, yeah, it was really scary.
05:26It's a very common trend at the minute, especially amongst young lads.
05:30It's probably the most targeted age group and gender.
05:35We see a lot where it's either money, it's blackmail, or further and more images, or, you know, inciting their friends to join in and things like that.
05:47So it is becoming a, it's a very, very common, common trend at the minute, unfortunately.
05:51It's kind of the stereotypical sextortion where you've got that initial kind of lure of niceties before you then get the nasty bit.
06:07A blackmail process is incredibly disturbing for a victim because they have this profound sense of not being in control.
06:21It must be devastating for them, because at that age in particular, you don't want to be exposed like that. How would you cope?
06:33The loneliness, the desperation, the thought of telling somebody what they've done, it's just embarrassing, the shame, it must be awful.
06:41Chloe continues to blackmail and exploit teenage boys online, hidden from authorities.
06:53Victims remain fearful of damage to their reputation and suffer in silence.
06:57Until November 2021, when a boy under the age of 16 makes the brave step of telling his parents.
07:06I was like, I can't do this anymore.
07:08And I called up one of my friends and they convinced me to tell my dad.
07:14So I just went downstairs, pulled my eyes out and told my dad straight away.
07:21And he called the police and the next day I was in the police station.
07:26The initial victim seemed like a one-off sextortion case where a female had blackmailed him,
07:33saying she would then post those nude images if they didn't get any more.
07:37And you've got a victim who is explaining what's happened to him,
07:42the police will want to get their devices, their phones, their laptops
07:47and see what they can try and find in terms of evidence of connections between the suspect.
07:54Essex police took the case seriously from the start, given the nature of the crime and the age of the victim.
08:01I was the supervising officer on the CSE proactive team, which is a child sexual exploitation team.
08:08My boss came to me and said that we needed to have a briefing.
08:11It was going to come to our team.
08:14You know, I sat down and spoke to the detective.
08:17And he did make me feel way, way better rather than like crisis mode.
08:23Then I ended up blocking, throwing ice and letting them do their investigation.
08:32We've got a system where we can download phones, get the initial enquiries from their phone
08:37as to kind of names and dates and times so that when we do those checks with the network provider
08:43we can then work our way backwards to what was going on.
08:47The victim's phone is immediately analysed by experts to uncover the Snapchat account and IP address
08:54from where Chloe is sending her malicious messages.
08:57What we look to gather is the social media handle
09:01and a lot of the time that can be resolved back to an individual or an IP address at least
09:06and then we'll make enquiries into who then owns that IP address.
09:09It took a few days for us to get the information back from the telecommunications network
09:20but it revealed an address in Canvey Island.
09:26Police find no trace of a Chloe Norris living at the property on the Essex coast.
09:31She had been a fictional creation all along.
09:34A 24-year-old man named Jay Lang is found living at this address.
09:45Jay Lang lived with his mother at an address in Canvey Island,
09:50which was quite local to the first victim.
09:54He was arrested and there was an attempt to hide his phone.
09:58An important thing for Essex Police when they're arresting somebody for an online offence
10:09is to make sure that, you know, they get all the devices, the digital devices
10:14that they think that the offender's been using and seize them
10:17and make sure that, you know, there's nothing deleted.
10:20While officers scour his home for potentially incriminating devices,
10:24Jay Lang is questioned at Basildon Police Station.
10:28So this concerns an incident of inciting a child under the age of 16 to engage in sexual activity.
10:34Lang has also been arrested for the offence of sexual communications with a child under 16
10:38and the offence of possession of indecent images of children.
10:40On his arrest, he denied all knowledge about what had happened.
10:46Snapchat, username Chloe N.
10:50Tell me about this account.
10:52No comment.
10:54Whose account is this?
10:55No comment.
10:56Is this your account?
10:57No comment.
10:58A girl called Chloe Norris has spent three years talking to teenage boys online,
11:16encouraging them to share intimate images.
11:19But in November 2021, police have been contacted by a concerned parent.
11:25As soon as Chloe received those images, she either would blackmail them for more images or videos,
11:34or blackmail them for money.
11:38I was young and naive.
11:41I didn't know what to do, so I just had to go along with it.
11:45Especially, like, growing up, you are embarrassed of stuff like that.
11:49So I didn't know what to do, and I just had no thoughts.
11:54I just had to follow what he said.
11:57By late November, Essex police have discovered that Chloe doesn't exist.
12:0224-year-old Jay Lang is arrested for the crime and immediately brought in for questioning.
12:09Describe the profile picture on this account.
12:12No comment.
12:14Is it a female cartoon avatar?
12:17No comment.
12:19Did you put that picture on the profile?
12:21No comment.
12:23When the police arrest Jay Lang, he denies it all whilst in custody.
12:29Have you sent messages to anyone from this account?
12:30No comment.
12:32Describe the content of the messages that you send from this account.
12:36No comment.
12:38I remember thinking he was a bit arrogant.
12:43He thought he was invincible.
12:48For 45 minutes, Jay Lang refuses to answer any questions.
12:53Do you send any videos from this account?
12:54No comment.
12:55Describe the content of those videos.
12:57No comment.
12:59But then, completely unprompted, Lang decides to offer up information to officers.
13:04I'd like to add a statement that I did not message anyone under the age of 15.
13:09If I did, then they had said they were 16.
13:13As you can see from the other messages, he said he was 16.
13:16So if he's actually 15, then obviously clearly it's him lying.
13:19I'd never message anyone under the age of 16 in any sort of way.
13:23Mr Lang acknowledging those messages was massive.
13:27Lang admitted that the boy had told him that he was 16 years old and he had communicated with him.
13:36Instead of getting himself out of trouble, he's just linked himself to the actual investigation and to the perpetrator.
13:44So I'm going to conclude the interview, unless anyone's got anything else to say.
13:47Jay Lang is released on bail pending further investigation and experts begin to interrogate all communication devices found at his home.
14:07In cases like this it's really important that personal devices are passed to a digital forensics unit as quickly as possible.
14:14There are security mechanisms on phones now that mean the quicker that you get them to a digital forensic unit the better.
14:22Mr Lang was bailed and at that point the scale of the investigation wasn't very apparent until the phones were sent off.
14:31As soon as all the devices are going to be forensically examined, that's when the investigation starts.
14:38Even though we found those devices on him, we still had to prove that he was the one communicating, he was the one that was making these blackmails and he was the one that was doing this to these victims.
14:55Whilst Jay Lang's phones are examined by data forensic experts, the investigation team delve into his background.
15:01Jay Lang was in his early twenties, he lived currently with his mum and a dresser in Canvey Island.
15:14He had a female partner with a small child, less than a year old.
15:19He had a local job, ferrying party items to addresses for a local business.
15:27He wasn't the kind of normal person that you would associate really with this kind of offending.
15:32To everybody outside, Jay Lang was a family man.
15:36But he's got another persona online that nobody knew about.
15:43Are you aware it's an offence to sexually communicate with a child under 16?
15:47No comment.
15:51So living a double life.
15:53That's the kind of terrifying thing about it really.
15:59Early reports from the digital forensics team reveal online activity more prolific than first thought.
16:07We then downloaded those mobile phones, which uncovered the scale of Mr Lang's offending.
16:15The download came back and it revealed several hundred victims that had possibly been exploited in the same way as the original victim that came forward.
16:26Experts find a high volume of social media conversations between Jay Lang, posing as Chloe, and hundreds of teenage boys across Essex.
16:36We knew that his victims ranged from 11 all the way through to 17, and that some of the people that he was communicating with were adults as well.
16:47Predominantly male victims that he was trying to talk to and trying to speak to and add.
16:52We also found that he was blackmailing victims for money.
17:01He spotted certain vulnerabilities in some of his victims and they were the victims that probably got affected the most because we know that there was kind of conversations that Chloe had had almost comforting some of our victims.
17:15And I think Jay Lang was very, very clever to pick up on that and spot those vulnerabilities and exploiting them.
17:21Police also learn how Lang is evading social media monitoring tools, allowing him to save images of the victims he's communicating with.
17:36Often on these social media platforms, if you screenshot live, if you screenshot live, the other person knows about it.
17:46But Jay Lang was able to find ways to manipulate this.
17:50I think young people genuinely believe that because of the sun, some of the settings that you can put on some of your profiles, that you're kind of safe.
18:03It's a misconception because the minute you send that, you're completely out of control.
18:12With new digital evidence mounting and the police now in touch with multiple victims, Jay Lang is brought back to Basilton Station for further questioning in March 2022.
18:25We found over 200 videos with indecent content in your phone. Is there anything that you want to tell us about that?
18:32No comment. No comment. No comment. No comment.
18:36He would make no comment to most of the questions. So that was kind of the most frustrating and difficult part of the process, to be fair.
18:46Throughout this interview, you've come across to me as really quite relaxed. If I was in your position, I'd be hugely distressed upon hearing that.
18:53Is there any reason for the way you're acting at the moment? No comment.
18:55No comment.
18:56His demeanour was very closed. He would sit there slouched over the table. He would get quite frustrated because of the length of the time we were questioning him and the amount of questions.
19:09Can I have a break now, please?
19:11You can do it, yeah. Thank you.
19:14With Jay Lang still refusing to talk to officers, police press on examining the hundreds of videos on his mobile phone to attempt to identify the victims.
19:24Essex police have got a really hard task to try and find these people. You've got indecent images of children to go through to identify who they are. You've got your chat that he's had with these boys and all your evidence is on all the devices.
19:45A lot of them were very, very scared. A lot of them were worried that their peers were going to find out because that had been the threat throughout that we'd found that Jay Lang was quite willing to share these images to their peers at their schools and at their clubs and in some cases did.
20:05I had to go in for like more questioning, like a recorded interview, just so they could get like everything they could.
20:20Essex police then begin the process of gathering usernames, data and devices from other victims.
20:27We would get a detailed account from that person, dates, times, what was said, what was shared. It can be quite embarrassing for young people to know.
20:35We would be able to share their devices and share us in particular what images they've been sharing of themselves.
20:43If a victim says that they were a victim and they do want to support police in the process, we would take a video interview from them.
20:51That way we're getting their best evidence on a video and they get certain protection and certain special measures at court.
21:06Evidence gathering and investigation is about building the bigger picture, so each device will play a part in that.
21:13The only way that we felt that the case was vulnerable was by the attribution putting him with that phone and him communicating.
21:22The investigation from that point was ensuring that we attributed Jlang to those phones where all the evidence was.
21:32We were a small team, but we were working 14, 16 hours a day, five, six days a week for a considerable period of time.
21:45The social workers we were working with were doing the same.
21:48Our partners in children's society were doing the same. The children independent sexual advisers were working similar hours and, you know, it was such a busy frenzy atmosphere.
22:03Whilst Essex police worked around the clock to trace victims, in April 2022, Lange remained on the streets.
22:17After the first arrest, there was a period where we were getting our head around the material and doing the investigation.
22:24There was an attempt to remind him in custody, which failed.
22:28We then worked closely with the CPS, formulating a checklist about at what point could we go back, arrest him and then remind him in custody.
22:36When it comes to the timeframe of the investigation, I've been working in sexual offences, both adults and children for over 10 years.
22:46And normally the kind of average period of time that you would investigate maybe one victim, one perpetrator can be a good 18 months to two years.
22:57But in the local community where he lives, rumours of Lange's alleged crimes have spread, sparking public outrage.
23:04The issues for us with localised offending is a lot of rumours can fly around, so it can cause us a lot of problems and it did cause us a lot of problems with his offending so localised.
23:17Numerous threats were made against Lange, jeopardising his safety and the investigation.
23:23We had to ensure that he was protected as well. I know that sounds really kind of funny to some people, but there was lots of threats made to him.
23:32He was confronted several times by members of the public.
23:37But that can only kind of harm our case when our attention is drawn to protecting him rather than doing the enquiries.
23:45We kind of get false reporting, we get a lot of people that are willing to kind of come on board when they're maybe not victims.
23:52For us, trying to protect the integrity of the investigation, that's the most important thing.
23:58It's 2022 and Essex police are investigating Jay Lang for online offences against children from as far back as 2018.
24:16Got a sense of kind of trepidation really about ensuring that we had the right resources to be able to deal with such a huge investigation.
24:28As police attempt to contact hundreds of potential victims, rumours of Jay Lang's alleged crimes are spreading throughout his local community.
24:36Jay in Canby was quite well known by the time that the investigation got to the latter parts.
24:46So we wanted to make sure that the integrity of the investigation was protected.
24:50And there was pressure to resolve the case quickly for multiple reasons.
24:56The concerns with it being so local is that there is a clear intention to meet because it was such a localised small area that the likelihood of him attempting to meet or try to meet and meet him, you know, made the risk for us significant.
25:12But with many victims still to identify and track down, investigators are working to analyze content found on Jay Lang's mobile phones so they can arrest and charge him.
25:27We were about to knock on a lot of people's doors and potentially kind of turn their life upside down really.
25:33They said something to my dad that I had become this bigger thing like on a countrywide investigation into like multiple targets.
25:44When we visited these victims, the considerations were even things like, you know, GCSEs, A-levels.
25:51We were approaching them in March, April, May, which on top of everything else is a really important time in their lives really.
25:58Some boys were in complete denial of what had happened and they didn't want any police involvement.
26:08And we walked out the door, you know, it didn't feel right to challenge them and put information to them that they weren't ready to accept themselves.
26:17As a parent myself, even as a police officer, I'm not sure how I would react in that situation.
26:23Not all victims will come forward, but Essex police will still speak with them and safeguard them.
26:31However, they can't use them for the investigation.
26:35We had boys that had quite a good reputation within their schools, with their parents, not coming forward because they thought that they were the ones that had done wrong by doing what they'd done.
26:45Essex police continue to work to meet the evidential threshold of the Crown Prosecution Service in order to charge Jay Lang.
26:58But the case takes a decisive turn with the discovery of an incriminating image on Lang's phone, linking him directly to the false identity of Chloe Norris.
27:08There was a huge breakthrough when the police found an image of the suspect and that image showed a distinctive tattoo.
27:19We knew from custody photos that he had tattoos that were similar.
27:26And we were able to identify that he is that person in those photos.
27:37The tattoo in the custody photo matched the tattoo in the image taken when a victim was speaking to Lang online.
27:46Meaning police were now linking Lang physically as well as digitally to Chloe Norris.
27:51We were also looking at expert witnesses in digital forensics to look at where his IP address is and making sure that it couldn't have been anybody else using those devices at the time.
28:04But this wasn't the only time Lang slipped up when contacting his victims.
28:10We knew that he had done video calls to some of these victims.
28:13And he was very clever not to put his face in these, but he started to make some mistakes.
28:27This careless mistake on a call with his victim was a significant moment in Essex police charging Jay Lang.
28:33That was what put the nail in his coffin when it came to kind of building a strong case against him.
28:49With more than 20 victims now willing to testify against Jay Lang, police also learned that he'd begun to take his abuse offline.
28:55With the more established relationships that Chloe had with some of her victims, he would use the kind of technique of pretending to be Chloe, but Chloe said, if you do something with my boyfriend, I'll then do something with you.
29:13His plan was always to be in a position where he could physically assault him.
29:20They thought they were meeting Chloe and they didn't, they met Jay Lang and that's where he then offended against them in person.
29:28The move from the online world to the offline world really does signify just his level of dangerousness and the risk that he was prepared to take.
29:37It also signifies the fact that the online world was no longer meeting his needs, whether that be sexual gratification, a need for power or control, and he had to amplify it and ramp it up by taking it to the offline space.
29:54The true scale of Jay Lang's offending had become clear and police were preparing to charge him.
29:59The download came back and it revealed over 352 victims that had possibly been exploited in the same way as the original victim that came forward.
30:14We were talking in the region of 41,000 videos and 140,000 images.
30:20We were also looking at expert witnesses in digital forensics to look at the attribution side of where, you know, his IP addresses and his devices and making sure that we'd tidied up that they were definitely in communication.
30:35It couldn't have been anybody else using those devices at the time.
30:39So we were looking at things like the conversations before and after each contact with the victim.
30:43You know, are you going to be home for tea? Yes, I am.
30:45Two seconds later, he was communicating with one of those victims. It couldn't have been anybody else.
30:51Jay Lang had been exploiting and blackmailing young boys as far back as 2018.
30:56Jay Lang is a monster. He's a social media monster. He's used those platforms to offend against children.
31:04And as a result of that, has got a catalogue of, you know, indecent images and videos of hundreds of children.
31:11You never really think stuff like that is going to happen to you because you always sort of hear about it.
31:19I was just really scared and I was obviously going to do what he said.
31:23As we examined the information and the data more intrinsically, we figured out that actually the likely thesis was that he was selecting his victims locally using Snapchat.
31:38For instance, if one of his victims went to school, he could see their friends and Snapchat kind of invited him to invite their friends.
31:52Bearing in mind he started offending in 2018, it wasn't until 2021 that somebody reported what he was doing.
32:00So I can imagine he thought, I am untouchable.
32:12In August 2022, Jay Lang is arrested for a third time.
32:16But now, police are armed with a mountain of evidence gathered from his mobile phones, along with the testimony of 26 victims.
32:23Our final interview was, this is the evidence. You tell us what you want to tell us, otherwise we'll see you at court. That was kind of our approach. And he maintained that it was somebody else.
32:41Do you understand what's happening here? Do you understand that we're able to link these accounts to that device?
32:48You can link them to that device, but that device, well, that device has got something to do with me. Them images bloody haven't.
32:53As well as the huge amount of digital evidence, police were able to present Jay Lang with incriminating physical evidence.
33:00In investigations like this, crucial was the tattoo. So, with that, the police had some brilliant information.
33:11And that is, who is there? That one, it appears you can make out the shape going into the end.
33:19Is that your tattoo? No comment.
33:22Is the tattoo on the white wrist appears to match the same tattoo you've got? No comment.
33:29Is that because you were the person who never called him? No comment.
33:32We presented him with the evidence. We kind of gave him the opportunity to be able to talk about it of his own free will and volition.
33:41Showing that account name, Chloe Noyes, 15, on your phone, that you omitted your phone.
33:48There's a video on there showing contact between Chloe Noyes, 15, and young men.
33:54We also know Chloe Noyes, 15, is linked to your phone number.
33:59So, how can you explain that?
34:02Well, it's a fit up, innit? Who's figure up?
34:05Please remind you of your right to silence.
34:07No comment.
34:09Who do you think's fit you up?
34:11Let me out of you and I'll find out.
34:13He would imply that he may have known who it was.
34:15He would leave a little nugget there for you to think that he knew who it was, or would imply that maybe he was doing it because he was under duress.
34:30Someone's accessed your personal phone.
34:33You've seen the new technology these days.
34:35What?
34:37No comment.
34:38The lead interviewer was very much, well, if there is somebody out there, and you know who it is, you know, you need to tell us because they're abusing children.
34:46And we were kind of trying to appeal to his better nature.
34:49If there's someone out there preying on young boys and sexually abusing young children, I want to catch the right one.
34:56And he just said, it's your job. If there's somebody out there, you need to find him.
35:03You want me to be doing the investigation until you find out?
35:05The police now have got an image of his face, an image of a very distinctive tattoo.
35:13No comment.
35:15And denies it all. Denies it all whilst in custody and being interviewed.
35:20No comment.
35:21You know, he's just full of arrogance. You know, he has no compassion or care for his victims.
35:29He just thinks he can play the police.
35:32Keep digging. We've done the investigation, and it points to you, mate.
35:35That's the reason why we're real.
35:36Keep digging, he won't. Trust me.
35:38Sure.
35:39I'm 100% he won't.
35:41By saying keep digging, he's really demonstrating a lack of remorse.
35:44But I think what he's also trying to do is to maintain a sense of control and superiority,
35:48because we know that power and control were core aspects of his offending behaviour.
35:53But you seem to be indicating that there's someone else involved in this and you're not responsible.
35:57Is that right? Is that what you're indicating?
36:01Even if I did give you a name, I'm just going to be even longer, aren't I?
36:05We can only hold you for a certain amount of time.
36:08And in the grand scheme of things, isn't that a good thing in relation to getting this sorted out
36:12and to show that you're not the person responsible for this?
36:14I need to be constantly looking over your shoulder.
36:21He was trying to groom us as well, which I find is quite common in predators and sexual offenders.
36:26Are you willing to tell us anything about anyone else who may be involved
36:29or anyone else who may be threatening you or making you do things you didn't want to do?
36:32Is there anything you can tell us in relation to that?
36:35They don't normally fight with police. They don't normally want to be your enemy.
36:38They want to be your friend.
36:39They almost play the victim themselves in front of us.
36:48In November 2022, after eight months of investigation, Essex police charged Jay Lang with 46 counts of child-related offences.
36:58We had a really good open dialogue with CPS from the start, really, about where their tipping point was.
37:06No comment.
37:07We'd secured enough evidence with the risk to the public and the risk to other victims
37:12that they were satisfied that they were happy to go to court.
37:16How can you explain that your face is coming up in multiple videos which have been made,
37:22which are linked to children who are being subjected to sexual abuse?
37:27The last person that's done it?
37:29Well, that's what we think we're doing.
37:32You got it so wrong.
37:33Within the 46 offences, there was sexual activity with a child.
37:37It involved penetration.
37:38There were grooming offences and there were sexual incitements where he'd encourage victims to masturbate online.
37:54Lang is remanded into custody, leaving police and prosecutors to prepare the case for trial.
37:58From over 236 identified victims, 26 were now preparing to come face-to-face with their abuser in court.
38:14We've got boys that could potentially pull out at any stage.
38:18That's always the concerns as officers that your victims, all of a sudden, at the last opportunity,
38:23well, I'm not going to give evidence.
38:24I didn't want to see this guy ever again.
38:28I didn't want to be stood up there in front of all these people and then say it.
38:33I was still sort of embarrassed by it and stuff.
38:40Essex Police did an absolutely wonderful job getting all of the evidence,
38:43presenting all of the evidence and identifying a lot of the victims.
38:48But will their evidence be strong enough to persuade a jury
38:52that this was a man who did this?
39:05It's November 2022 and Jay Lang has been charged with 46 offences against children
39:12relating to exploitation and sexual abuse.
39:14This is the biggest investigation that Essex Police have dealt with in relation to one person and child exploitation.
39:27People think they are very good at hiding things a lot of the time.
39:31And I think there is potentially a misunderstanding of how good digital forensics can be, especially at recovering information.
39:44With a date set for December 2022, police have the challenging task of encouraging as many victims as possible to speak up in court about Lang's offending.
39:54It can be quite intimidating for victims to think that they've got to give evidence in court.
40:02They've already lived it once, that we then go and then they have to relive it again.
40:07They know they're going to be cross-examined, they know they're going to be called liars.
40:12They know they're going to have to come face to face with Jay Lang.
40:14Having to relive the ordeal, the abuse that they had experienced through their interactions with him in a public arena such as court can be incredibly stressful, disturbing and shaming because there's fear of public humiliation, but also negative judgment.
40:31And we also know that courtrooms can be incredibly hostile and dismissive spaces, especially towards victims.
40:37We certainly had a few victims that didn't proceed with the case because of that, and then your whole case collapses really because the victims are the most important people in the case.
40:51With an uncertain trial on the horizon, Jay Lang makes a decision that will alter the course of the entire case.
40:58Although Lang protested his innocence and went not guilty all the way through the investigation, he then did plead guilty to all 46 charges against him.
41:10At the last moment, Lang admits to numerous counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, child sexual exploitation, arranging or facilitating child sex offenses, production of child sexual abuse material and blackmail, saving his victims the grueling process of a trial.
41:35A plea guilty, especially to all the charges, is the absolute ideal scenario because anything can happen at court.
41:49The police in this investigation did an excellent job.
41:52Keep digging. We've done the investigation and it points to you, mate.
41:55Essex police had put together such a watertight case that Jay Lang had to plead guilty to the 46 offenses, which he did in the end.
42:04In September 2023, Jay Lang appears at Basildon Crown Court for sentencing.
42:18But before revealing their decision, the judge invites victims to speak about how Lang's actions have impacted their lives.
42:25So we had in total 13 victim impact statements and some of them included family members and probably the hardest bit of the case for me.
42:38We've had children that have, you know, come very close to suicide, severe self-harming, moved to different parts of the country and the whole family's had to relocate because of his offending.
42:50So, yeah, tough. Tough as a parent as well.
42:55When it came to the sentencing, we had no idea.
43:07We knew that he deserved a significant time and we were hoping that the courts would see that.
43:12Jay Lang received a 21-year sentence with a six-year extended sentence and he will be on the sex offenders register for life.
43:25I'm happy with that and I think, you know, he should never be able to do something like that again.
43:30So, you know, I've got no issues with it. It's been 21 years. I'm pretty happy with that.
43:35When he pled guilty, he had a psychiatric report completed and it was interesting that he said to the judge that he had no regrets about what he did, that no remorse and that he had great pleasure and enjoyment out of the power and control that he had over these children.
43:57Jay Lang's reign of terror over teenage boys in Essex had finally come to an end, closing a two-year case that left behind a lasting legacy.
44:17I think this case demonstrates how the internet can be used for evil.
44:22It also demonstrates just to have no idea around who you're talking to on the internet, you know.
44:28It's probably a lesson in being cautious.
44:33When You're Ready is a national initiative by the CSC Task Force that has been developed alongside victims and survivors that encourages victims that if they've been a victim of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation to come forward.
44:52I would encourage people that if they've been a victim of it or know somebody that's been a victim of it to come to police, that you will be taken seriously and that we will investigate any allegations as thoroughly as we possibly can.
45:05I just want other people to understand that this happens to a lot of different people and that they're not alone and how easy it is or that it may not seem like it to go through that process of reporting it and that they can get out of them situations much easier than you think.
45:27In this case specifically we had over 350 victims and only some of those victims proactively came to police and without them coming to police we would never have known the extent of Jay Lang's offending and he possibly could still be out there committing further offences as we speak now.
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