Repeat Napier sex offender threatened to 'go viral' with pictures of 14-year-old girl

Police used the girl's cellphone to arrange a rendezvous with an unwitting Denham Jones. Photo / File

A repeat sex offender has admitted offences against a 14-year-old Napier girl, including threatening to "go viral" with pictures of her.

Denham Jones, now 26, has been remanded in custody for sentence on February 4 next year, on five charges including blackmail, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years' imprisonment.

His admissions came when he appeared in Napier District Court via audiovisual link from prison, when as well as the blackmail he pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual grooming of a minor, one of performing an indecent act on the girl and one of possessing objectionable material, relating to images of the teenager.

The offences through August and September were initiated by Jones' contact with the girl via Instagram and a first-up offer of $800, if she sent him photos of herself, and ended late last month when he walked into the hands of police who had used the girl's cellphone to communicate with him and arrange a rendezvous with the unwitting offender.

In between times, on August 26, she had sent him three photos, and then agreed to meet him and commit a sexual act, from which she fled without another $8000 he'd promised, nor the money for the photos.

There had also been threats by Jones to share the photos he already had if she did not meet further demands, and she ultimately told her mother, resulting on a complaint to police.

As a teenager Jones was sentenced to four years' prison after a prolonged sex attack on a 17-year-old girl in a Napier toilet block. While taken to police by his parents after the release of an a photo during the inquiry, Jones had only confessed when identified by DNA evidence.