A teenage boy has been found guilty of stalking and harassing multiple girls online after he was arrested by National Crime Agency.

The 17-year-old from east London, who cannot be named, was sentenced on December 21 at Guildford Crown Court to a youth rehabilitation order with 18 months intensive supervision and surveillance.

NCA said they identified the boy in early 2021, when he made fraudulent emergency requests for details of a girl living in the US to social media companies.

He had supposedly gained access to the email accounts of Brazilian government officials illegally to make these requests and obtain her personal information.

NCA added: “He spent time gathering her information and published it online, telling her he would only take it down if she sent him a sexual photo.

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“When she refused, he worked with others to make several false reports of shootings at her address – also known as ‘swatting’ – causing local police officers to attend.”

The boy reportedly made further disclosure requests to social media and technology companies, to dig into the personal lives of online rivals and girls he was at school with.

He was arrested by the NCA at his east London home in February 2021 while he was still 14, with officers seizing several of his electronic devices.

The NCA said that the boy was released with bail conditions but continued to offend using email accounts of overseas government officials, this time from Gibraltar and Argentina, to target a female Youtuber.

After securing her personal information, the boy was found to have spread defamatory misinformation about her that he later claimed was an attempt to get her fired.

The attack involved him creating a false arrest warrant for her that he shared with her contacts using a fraudulent Discord account set up in the name of government officials.

He was arrested again by NCA in May 2021 just after he sent a package containing faeces to the youtuber’s home and spammed her Twitch (livestreaming) feed with insults and her personal information.

He was charged and later pleaded guilty to sixteen offences, including eleven counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of stalking involving serious alarm/distress.

Alongside these crimes, the boy was also investigated by City of London Police for a hacking spree targeting several global organisations, including telecoms, a computer parts manufacturer and gaming companies between 2021 and 2022.

Jamie Horncastle, from NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit said the “technically skilled teenager” chose to use his talents to break the law repeatedly, bringing fear and distress to the young girls he targeted.

He added: “This case is a prime example of online offending, which in many young people’s minds may appear as harmless fun but has significant and damaging real world consequences.

“He now, rightly so, has a criminal record which will seriously impact his future.”