Mikey Winchester

Mikey Winchester, a 25-year-old man from Newhaven, East Sussex, engaged in a series of predatory online grooming activities targeting young girls between 2022 and 2023. Posing as a 13-year-old girl under fake Snapchat and Instagram accounts, Winchester manipulated and exploited his victims, who were aged 10 and 13.

Sussex Police first became aware of Winchester's offending in May 2023, following reports from another police force about two 10-year-old girls who had been approached by a Snapchat user named 'avadunn2.0', masquerading as 'Ava'. Winchester sent explicit images to both victims and requested they reciprocate, despite their clear indications of being young children. The messages were discovered on the girls' phones, leading officers to trace the account to Winchester's home address on Gibbon Road in Newhaven. On 18 May 2023, police visited the property, arrested him, and seized several digital devices.

Further investigation revealed additional offending. In August 2023, another force transferred a case to Sussex Police involving a 13-year-old girl groomed on Instagram by an account named 'dumbphoebelol', again operated by Winchester under the guise of a teenage girl. He sent her explicit images and coerced her into sending explicit images of herself. Analysis of the seized devices linked both social media accounts to Winchester and uncovered 69 child sex abuse images across categories A, B, and C, as well as four images of extreme animal pornography.

Winchester was charged with three counts of sexual communication with a child, inciting sexual activity with a child (both with and without penetration), three counts of making indecent images of a child, and four counts of possession of extreme pornography. At Lewes Crown Court on 17 December 2025, he pleaded guilty to all charges. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, received an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Detective Constable Gary Baker of Sussex Police described Winchester as 'a calculating, predatory offender who posed as a child to manipulate young children in the most appalling way.' Baker commended the victims and their families for reporting the incidents promptly, as well as partner forces for their support in the investigation. The case underscores the risks children face online, with Sussex Police continuing efforts to identify and apprehend similar offenders.