Oldham man who blackmailed Lancashire schoolgirls for indecent images jailed

Ryan Greenhow was sentenced at Manchester Crown Square Court on Tuesday (February 24), after pleading guilty to 22 counts of non-contact child sex offences including child sexual exploitation, sharing images or film to cause alarm, causing or inciting a child aged under 16 to engage in sexual activity and malicious communications.

The offences occurred between November 2024 and March 2025 and involved Greenhow contacting six victims via social media platforms including WhatsApp, TikTok and Snapchat.

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Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the now 37-year-old pretended to be a 15-year-old boy and tried to blackmail the victims into sending him indecent image.

He would send the victims, aged between 12-15, an indecent image, making claims that the image depicted them when it was a picture of a naked woman obtained from the internet, and threatened to send the image to their friends and family if the victims did not do as Greenhow said.

This led to him making demands for indecent images from victims located in areas across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Buckinghamshire. Text messages threatening his victims, included “this is your last chance, everyone will know this is you” and “I have seen your nudes, add me”.

When a victim asked Greenhow, “why me?” he responded with “coz your sexy asf”.

Some of the victims did send Greenhow images and reported his activity to their parents, carers and school teachers.

Greenhow, of Oldham, has been jailed for seven years and four months and will also be made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Detective Constable Adair, of GMP’s City of Manchester Division, said: “Firstly, I would like to thank the victims in this case for coming forward, reporting their ordeal to the police and allowing us to investigate, resulting in today’s sentencing.

“Greenhow used several different social media platforms pretending to be a 15-year-old boy and followed the same method with each of his victims – sending them random images obtained from the internet, falsely attributing them to the victim, then threatening to share the image with the victim’s friends and family in exchange for an indecent image of the victim.

“Once our investigation was underway, detailed phone analysis led to us identifying further victims. Officers worked to safeguard these victims from any further harm.

“This sentencing is part of our wider work to tackle child sexual exploitation and we’re committed to protecting victims and bringing offenders to justice.

“Anybody who thinks they may have been a victim of sexual abuse can contact Greater Manchester Police at any time. We will provide support, conduct thorough investigations, and take firm action against offenders.”