Eight victims of a manipulative online sex predator have faced him in court to describe how their lives were destroyed after being blackmailed into committing degrading sex acts. 

Anthony ‘Danny’ Burns, 39, used ‘sugar daddy’ websites to trap dozens of unsuspecting women into performing extreme sexual acts under the threat of having images and videos exposed to family and friends.

He posed as various people including the head of a modelling agency looking for clients to lure women into sharing naked images and coerced others into abusing their children. 

Burns, from Lowestoft, admitted 39 offences and was found guilty of a further two following a trial in August 2023.

He is to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court where a hearing was told his 41 offences included blackmail, online sex offences against children and adults, and indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Kate Temple-Mabe said: “The scale and nature of his offending involved controlling women particularly young or vulnerable women into performing degrading sexual acts online for his gratification.”

The court was told he had also worked with notorious online child sex offender Adbul Elahi, who was jailed for 32 years in 2021.

Elahi ‘tutored’ Burns on how to blackmail women, including techniques such as scripted wording to help gain the trust of victims

Her Honour Judge Buckingham heard from some of Burns’ victims who read out impact statements, with one saying: “He doesn’t have any control over me any more. I want him to feel the fullest force of the law.”

Another woman said she had been terrified he knew her address and she could be murdered.

Saying she had suffered two years of anguish, she added: “It was horrific. I was isolated, lonely and a shell of myself.”

Another said she had been “outgoing and confident” before but afterwards she lost three stone in weight and had suffered suicidal thoughts.

“It’s not an understatement to say this incident has ruined my life,” she added.  

Burns has been warned he will receive a “significant” jail term when he is sentenced on Friday.